The road where Sandra Bland was arrested was officially renamed in her honor, the Houston Chronicle reports. Bland was in town to accept a job offer from her alma mater, Prairie View A&M University, in July when she was stopped and apprehended by police officer Brian Encinia for an improper lane change.
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Sandra Bland Parkway was unveiled in a ceremony that took place Friday, April 15.
Attendees at the ceremony included close to 100 activists, college students and family members wearing buttons with Bland’s face and dressed in #SandraBland T-shirts.
“It’s not about just Sandy,” Bland’s mother, Geneva Reed-Veal, said to the crowd. “It’s about other women and men who’ve died at the hands of officers who’ve sworn to protect them.”
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At the ceremony, Reed-Veal played a voicemail Sandra had left the day before she was detained. In the message, Sandra Bland tells her mother she had made it. “I am here,” she said.
Sandra Bland Parkway will always be a reminder of what took place July 10, 2015.
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