Text and Photography by Julian Lucas
Published November 2, 2020 12:00am PST

If you weren’t aware or may have forgotten, the United States, the place many of us call home, was built by opposition or what many would call a protest. Furthermore, we should all know and understand the leadership answers to the people, not the people answer to the leadership it is essential to a functioning democracy, and at the nucleus of the First Amendment.

History teaches us of how America was founded by political protests and unrest. The Boston Tea Party of 1773, involved American colonists standing up to the oppressive British and their taxation, which was the first important act of rebellion of American colonists against the British rule.

The Women’s Rights Movement began before the Civil War took decades of protests for women to be able to have an opinion and be able to vote. In the decades preceding the Civil War, the movement for women's suffrage started in earnest. Many states granted the privilege to all white men regardless of their wealth. The 19th amendment was sanctioned in 1920, giving women the same rights as men, however, over the last 50 years the poverty gap widened. In 2016, 13.4 percent of women in this age group (13.4 million women) were living in poverty, compared to 9.7 percent of adult men (9.4 million men).

After the Women’s Rights Movements, there were many other protests to follow, including student protests against the Vietnam war, which helped the US end involvement. During the time of the. Vietnam war, Civil Rights Movement became the center of focus in the 1960’s. The Civil Rights Movement included protests by sit-ins, boycotts, and marches, only to be met with opposition by violent police and racist white citizens who attacked, beat and arrested protesters.

In the present day, there has been challenges on the right to protest, which has led to mass arrests, police curfews, in addition to police using “non lethal” tactical weaponry towards American citizens.

In the current year of 2020, and most recent, we have witnessed protests global spear headed by the Black Lives Matter Movement, which has been one the largest civil rights action recorded in history. In the wake of George Flyod we have witnessed or have been a part of many protests within our own communities. We have seen night after night on national news outlets, featured no lack of privileged individuals calling for "peaceful resistance" while ridiculing the people on the streets as "looters." Pictures of Martin Luther King , Jr. and quotations on non-violent opposition were packed with online feedback. Abuse, we have been reminded by these well-meaning persons, is not the solution and it will not alter the system.

On May 28th 2020 just three days after the tragic event of George Floyd, dying unarmed and non combative at the hands of yet another incident with police, invoked two local high school students, D’Ana and Anahi to create Pomona Protests and organize demonstrations that were held throughout the city of Pomona. D’Ana explained, “When we created all of the social media platforms we saw a lot of support and participation at our demonstrations”. Like many other demonstrations, Pomona Protests wants more citizen over-sight in addition to defunding or reducing the police budget to reallocate funding into the community the police serves.

Although there are many active protests, both nationally and internationally, protests in Pomona has eased due to the upcoming elections. During this time members of Pomona Protests contribute their time in community clean-ups, in addition to assisting with community fridges and supporting other local platforms for social justice.

The ultimate goal for both founding members is to bring awareness to the city and they both have hope that Pomona will grow and change for the better.

Julian Lucas, is fine art photographer, photojournalist, and creative strategist. Julian also works as a housing specialist which, includes linking homeless veterans to housing. Julian has lived in Chicago, Inglewood, Portland, and the suburbs of Los Angeles County including Pomona.