Sierra Thomas is a college student at Viriginia State University and has aspirations of being a teacher following graduation.
While at a rally in Fayetteville, North Carolina for Donald Trump, she kept her goals in mind as she shouted “Black Lives Matter,” inside the Crown Coliseum full of his supporters.
In a personal essay for The Washington Post, Thomas writes that she drove three hours from Petersberg, Virginia where her school is located to the rally with intentions to protest the republican’s campaign.
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Thomas writes that after reading and watching coverage of Trump’s White House run that included his rallies full of people who “felt comfortable being openly racist and hateful” and heard his “hateful rhetoric about Muslims, Mexicans and ‘the old days,'” she decided enough was enough and wanted to do something—anything—about it.
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While fear and hestitation filled her, Thomas mustered the courage to fulfill her protest plan.
Her essay details that she yelled “Black Lives Matter” eight times, even while people yelled back at her that “All lives matter” and chanted their beloved candidate’s name as three officers grabbed her to escort her out of the facility, and even as one man called her a nigger.
Thomas was in attendance at the same rally where Rakeem Jones was sucker-punched in the face by a Trump supporter.
To read Thomas’s essay in its entirety, visit The Washington Post.
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