A theology of redemption: How Jazmine Brooks has inspired a movement in Staunton

Jazmine Brooks steps on the stage in her small  Southern city’s park — which used to be the park for whites only — and looks out at the people sitting in lawn chairs.

“George Floyd’s murder was inevitable,” she tells the largely white crowd.  

She’s Black, an ordained reverend, an inclusivity expert at the university in Staunton, Virginia. She’s 26. 

Brooks is representing the AME Church at this prayer vigil, so she wears her reverend’s collar — along with a favorite African print skirt  and a pair of Nikes. She projects an almost-athletic intensity, but it’s words that leap from her. 

Poised on the edge of the park’s stage named after a Confederate general, the reverend in sneakers tells them, “Until we are willing to grapple with the policies and politics that are born out of Black enslavement, we will see countless more George Floyds.”    

Praise, protest at Gypsy Hill Park: 'Black people die spiritual, social and physical deaths, every single day'

A young man in the crowd listens.

Less than a week later, he begins to protest every afternoon outside a local hotel named after that same Confederate general. Others join him. They stand outside, rain or shine. They write letters to city council and the hotel's owners. They are approached on the sidewalk across the street from the hotel by guests both supportive and combative. 

Above them a giant rooftop neon sign glows nightly with a name that protesters say represents slavery, treason and white supremacy. STONEWALL JACKSON, in all caps. From a mile away drivers entering the city can see the name floating above the rooftops like a signature.

The protesters show up, every day for seven weeks. The reverend with the sneakers is with them. She's proud of Aaron Barmer, the young man she inspired. 

They aren't the first to complain about the hotel’s name. There’ve been rumors that the parent company was already working on a switch, that historic building code might make removing the sign difficult. But nothing happens. So they keep showing up.

The latest: Stonewall Jackson Hotel submits request to City of Staunton to remove neon sign

On July 27, the name Stonewall Jackson is removed without fanfare from the awning by the guest entrance. Downtown residents wonder: will the lighted sign atop the hotel be turned on that night? No one is sure if it's been on lately.

That evening, the large neon letters are dark.

Brooks isn’t interested in talking about how she felt after George Floyd died.  

How did she feel about Breonna Taylor? Freddie Gray? Tamir Rice?  

“It was a cut-and-paste story with a new name — no new face, no new enemy, no new issue, just a new name and a few rearranged details,” says Jazmine Brooks.  

“My feelings were the same as everyone else who lives under the constant threat of white violence and had to witness yet another state-sanctioned murder.”  

The second-youngest of seven children doesn’t have time for feelings that don’t translate into movement. “To be honest, the question about how Black people feel after watching these public executions, on display for public consumption, is capricious, to me.”  

Brooks was already deep into community action.  

The Stonewall Jackson Hotel sign is the least subtle reminder of the layers of history Stauntonians must confront. The community lost its only Black member of city council in June. And Brooks had run unsuccessfully for school board in the same election. 

Brooks doesn’t let the reality of an all-white city council and majority-white school board slow her drive to amplify her city’s Black voices. She built a team to address racial discrimination and economic inequities in Staunton schools. 

Everything she does flows from her theology of redemption. All people can be redeemed, she says, but until systemic and structural racism is dismantled entirely, Black deaths are predestined.

Though things look bleak, she says one night on the phone after a long day, “I don’t think I’ve ever been more hopeful about what’s possible than I am now. There’s a lot of pressure for everybody right now.

“I think this moment that is becoming history is fueling the fight. It is opening more eyes. More people are joining the cause. More people are showing up.” 

Jazmine Brooks says that whatever eventually happens in Staunton will be a result of the entire community's intentions and actions, not the suggestions of one person.

“These steps are not the answer to creating a more just world," she says. "They are intermediary steps. The final answer is a complete overhaul of the systems and politics we currently engage.”

• Step 1: Redistribution of power by way of public commissions and committees. Publicize openings on these boards as well as the applications.
• Step 2: Implement a Staunton commission on equity and achievement with outlined authority over issues of equity within the council, the public schools, city committees and throughout the city. This should be an independent body.
• Step 3: Desegregate the public schools — racially and economically. Implement an accountability system for racism in public schools as opposed to teacher training that does not center anti-racism.
• Step 4: Implement a policing oversight committee — an independent body with official authority.
• Step 5: Implement the Marcus Alert, which would mobilize mental health professionals along with police when appropriate. 
• Step 6: Put an end to forced and exploited labor in Middle River Regional Jail — incarcerated citizens cannot be the city’s slaves, Brooks says.

It’s a few days after the Stonewall Jackson sign came down. As Jazmine Brooks leaves the Mary Baldwin University campus, she checks to make sure the campus flags are all flying at half-staff for Sen. John Lewis, whose body is  lying in state in Washington, D.C.

It’s another day that could be bleak but which to her holds great promise.

“I think this moment has become a catalyst for a shift,” she says. “Though the work is long and hard, I think what we’re working toward is within reach.”

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When she’s done teaching or preaching, she often takes refuge back out in the community. Like tracking down a good place for steak and potatoes on a Friday night in downtown Staunton.

Or a glass of wine with a small group of friends. Sometimes it’s just a nap. Sometimes it’s a trip to Hampton Roads to visit family. Seeing her sister and five brothers and her nieces and nephews recharges her.

She admits she’s uncomfortable being the focus of the story, to the point she’s talked about it with her mentors. “There are folks who do more than I do.” 

She realizes while this is not about her, it’s a defining time for her in her own life.

Now here she is, on the phone again, answering questions about what she thinks the next year holds for Staunton.

“To be clear, Staunton is a microcosm of the rest of America. What we see in Staunton is the maintenance of the white supremacy, economic exploitation, colonialism and imperialism that exists across our nation.”

Her focus is accountability in government. While she believes people can be redeemed, she has no such patience with systems that have perpetuated racism.  

Brooks de-emphasizes her role in the community’s evolution while underscoring the possibility she can feel in the air, that puts some additional bounce beneath her sneakers.

“I am just one, lending my gifts where they fit and being present when and where I can.”  

More about this project: Heart of the movement: How these 12 young activists are seeding change in their towns

The team behind Justice in My Town

REPORTING:  Brian Gordon (Asheville, NC), Alex English (Athens, GA), Ashley Biviano (Binghamton, NY), Ed Palattella (Erie, PA), Angelia Davis (Greenville, SC), Wilton Jackson (Jackson, MS), Adria Walker (Rochester, NY), Rebecca Sitzes (Shelby, NC), Future Brown (Sherman, TX), Monique Calello (Staunton, VA), Scott Linesburgh (Stockton, CA), Jasmine Vaughn-Hall (York, PA)

PHOTOGRAPHY AND VIDEOGRAPHY: Angeli Wright (Asheville, NC), Joshua L. Jones (Athens, GA), Ashley Biviano (Binghamton, NY), Jack Hanrahan (Erie, PA), Matt Burkhartt (Greenville, SC), Barbara Gauntt (Jackson, MS), Tina MacIntyre-Yee (Rochester, NY), Brittany Randolph (Shelby, NC), Future Brown (Sherman, TX), Holly Marcus (Staunton, VA), Clifford Oto (Stockton, CA), Cameron Clark (York, PA)

GRAPHICS: Daniella Medina  

EDITORS: Michael Kilian, Kristen Cox Roby, Jeffrey Schwaner, Mark Liu

DIGITAL PRODUCTION AND DEVELOPMENT: Spencer Holladay, Diane Pantaleo

SOCIAL MEDIA, ENGAGEMENT AND PROMOTION: Sarah Robinson, Ana Hurler, Melanie Balakit, Daniella Medina