Though this took place June 22, 1996, it is especially poignant now.
Antifa or no Antifa?
Who are we?
What are we?
What is written in our playbook?
On that day outside of the city hall in Ann Arbor, Michigan was a KKK rally. And a counter rally.
Keshia Thomas was then an 18 year old high school senior, there to join the counter-protesters, outnumbering the klan members thirty to one.
A woman with a megaphone pointed to a man, Albert McKeel Jr., with swastika tattoos on his arms and wearing confederate regalia. She yelled out,"There's a Klansman in the crowd! A Nazi!”
Before the man could get away, the crowd had him on the ground and began to kick and beat him.
That’s when Keshia Thomas showed us the way.
"Personally, the one thing I take away from it is that you never know what change can happen in just a moment. Whether you do the right thing or the wrong thing, change happens in just a moment."
Five months after the incident, a young man walked up to her whilst she was in a coffee shop. He stopped in front of her and stared at her intently. Then, his face softened.
“I want to thank you for saving that man.”
“He was my dad.”
“You changed my life.”
“And his.”
“He left the klan.”
"Imagine what would have happened if they had killed his father out there. That would have just been another person filled with anger, hate and revenge," she said.
“Nobody deserves to be hurt, especially not for an idea.”
“Someone had to step out of the pack and say, 'This isn't right’.”
Since that day, Keisha has been on the front lines...as an aid relief worker. She was there serving those in need after Hurricane Katrina, the wildfires of California..and at Ground Zero shortly after the towers fell.
She is presently in Houston, helping those in the aftermath.
"This has just always been a passion of mine. Even before the incident happened. I want to help people. And to help people see that there is hope."
And twenty years later, THAT, fellow Kossacks, is how we’re going to prevail!