Many photos have come to encapsulate the movement for black lives: 25-year-old Edward Crawford throwing a tear gas container back at St. Louis County police officers during a protest in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014; Devin Allen’s photo of a man running from police in riot gear during one of the Freddie Gray protests in April 2015 in Baltimore.
As protests continued in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, responding to the officer-involved killing of Alton Sterling by local police, yet another iconic photograph has emerged, chronicling the tenacity of those seeking justice in the fight against police brutality.
In a Reuters photo captured by Jonathan Bachman, a New Orleans-based freelance photographer, Ieshia Evans, a nurse and mother to a young son, can be seen standing steadfast in the middle of the road, alone, sundress flowing, as two officers in riot gear approach her.
A woman protesting Alton Sterling's death is detained in Baton Rouge https://t.co/qV1e2p3NOz (ph: Jonathan Bachman) pic.twitter.com/cRoEnrCSTT
— Reuters Pictures (@reuterspictures) July 11, 2016
“She was there, she wasn’t resisting, and she had every intention of not moving,” Bachman told BuzzFeed News.
“That was the first image I transferred [to Reuters] because I knew it was going to be an important photo,” he said. “You can take images of plenty of people getting arrested, but I think this one speaks more to the movement and what the demonstrators are trying to accomplish here in Baton Rouge.”
Evans was among the 102 protesters arrested Saturday in Baton Rouge, including Campaign Zero co-founder and activist DeRay Mckesson. Like Mckesson, Evans was charged with obstruction of a highway and was released Sunday.
After she was released, Evans wrote on Facebook, “I appreciate the well wishes and love, but this is the work of God. I am a vessel! Glory to the most high! I'm glad I'm alive and safe. And that there were no casualties that I have witnessed first hand.”
