Jacob Blake paralyzed after police shooting, father says
August 25, 2020
Jacob Blake remains in intensive care after being shot multiple times by police in Wisconsin. His father told a local paper that doctors did not yet know whether his paralysis from the waist down would prove permanent.
A video posted on social media showed the apparently unarmed man, identified as Jacob Blake, being shot multiple times by police in Kenosha, Wisconsin on Sunday while getting into his car. Blake's partner, Lacquisha Booker, confirmed to local television that their three sons were in the vehicle during the incident.
The father, also named Jacob Blake, told the Chicago Sun-Times newspaper that he had gotten word on Sunday evening that his son was shot eight times by the officers. He saw the video of the confrontation 18 minutes thereafter.
"What justified all those shots?" Blake asked. "What justified doing that in front of my grandsons? What are we doing?"
The elder Blake said there were now "eight holes" in his son's body and that doctors treating him at a hospital in Milwaukee did not know if the paralysis was permanent. He was driving from Charlotte, North Carolina on the east coast to be with his son in the hospital, a roughly 13-hour journey without stops.
Intensive care
Ben Crump, a civil rights attorney representing Blake's family, told ABC News on Tuesday that the younger Blake remained in intensive care after undergoing multiple surgeries for his injuries.
The shooting is being investigated by the Wisconsin Justice Department, which did not release any details. The officers involved in the shooting had been placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation.
The incident has ignited protests in Kenosha over the past two days. Officers fired tear gas on demonstrators who were defying a dusk-to-dawn curfew on Monday night. Protesters also marched in New York City against Blake's shooting.
Demonstrations against police brutality have spread across the United States following the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police in May. Other shootings, including one in Louisiana on Sunday, have only enhanced calls for police reform.
#BlackLivesMatter: Key figures in the US civil rights movement
The body of late civil rights icon and congressman John Lewis will lie in state at the US Capitol. But who, exactly, was Lewis? And which other figures played a divisive role in the US civil rights movement?
Image: Getty Images/Keystone
'Necessary trouble'
The image of civil rights leader and congressman John Lewis, who died on July 17, is projected onto the statue of Confederate Robert Lee in Richmond, Virginia. A champion of non-violent protest, he attended the 1963 March on Washington and played a key role in abolishing racial segregation. He famously declared: "Never, ever be afraid to make some noise and get in good trouble, necessary trouble."
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/S. Helber
'A voteless people is a hopeless people'
Amelia Boynton Robinson was a civil rights pioneer who fought for voting rights for African Americans. She helped organize a 5-day civil rights march from the city of Selma to Montgomery in Alabama in March 1965. During the protest, Robinson and others were brutally beaten by state police. Images of what became known as Bloody Sunday went around the world.
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'The right man and the right place'
Thurgood Marshall, pictured here in 1957, was the first African-American justice of the Supreme Court. Announcing his pick, US President Lyndon B. Johnson declared it was "the right thing to do, the right time to do it, the right man and the right place." Marshall, who was born in the city of Baltimore, Maryland, successfully fought against the racial segregation of US schools and universities.
Rosa Parks made history, when on December 1, 1955, she refused to give up her bus seat to a white man. Her subsequent arrest sparked the Montgomery bus boycott, led by Martin Luther King. The 385 days of protest proved effective when on November 13, 1956, the Supreme Court upheld a ruling declaring segregated busses unconstitutional in Alabama and Montgomery.
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'I've looked over, and I've seen the promised land'
Martin Luther King at Memphis' Lorraine Motel, on the day of his killing on April 4, 1968. One day earlier, King famously said: "I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the Promised Land." Also pictured (to King's left): Civil rights activist Hosea Williams and Baptist minister Jesse Jackson, to his right, Ralph Abernathy.
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Civil Rights Ambassador Young
Andrew Jackson Young was in Memphis, Tennessee, on the day of Martin Luther King’s murder. The politician, civil rights leader, and clergyman had joined King in leading the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. In 1967, President-elect Jimmy Carter nominated Young as the US ambassador to the United Nations. In 1981, he was elected mayor of Atlanta.
Image: Getty Images/D. Oulds
'We are nonviolent with people who are nonviolent with us'
Malcolm Little, better known as Malcolm X (left), rejected Martin Luther King’s notion of non-violent protest. He was portrayed by actor Denzel Washington (right) in Spike Lee’s 1992 biopic "Malcolm X." Once the African American leader of Nation of Islam, he later abandoned the organization, becoming one of its most fervent critics. He was assassinated on February 21, 1965.
'My faith in the Constitution is whole'
Barbara Jordan was the first woman and the first African American keynote speaker at a Democratic National Convention. In 1974, the attorney, legislator, and educator declared in the House of Representatives that "my faith in the Constitution is whole; it is complete; it is total."
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A jazz and civil rights icon
Ella Fitzgerald, born in a New York suburb in 1917, was not only a jazz but also a civil rights icon. Fitzgerald, who won 13 Grammys and sold some 40 million records, always insisted musicians touring with her be treated equally, regardless of their skin color. She was the first African American woman to perform at Los Angeles’ Mocambo night club after actress Marilyn Monroe publicly backed her.
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Strong, black women
Novelist Alice Walker became involved in the US civil rights movement in the 1960s. She was just 17 when she joined the 1963 March on Washington, where Martin Luther King delivered his famous "I Have a Dream" speech. Walker’s novels feature strong, black women. And her work The Color Purple won a Pulitzer Prize in 1983.
Image: Getty Images/H. Brace
An outspoken activist
Baptist minister Al Sharpton speaking at George Floyd’s funeral service. In 2004, Sharpton was a Democratic candidate for the presidential race. Two years later, in 2006, he led a protest march in honor of Sean Bell, a 23-year-old African American who had been shot dead by police. Al Sharpton is an outspoken and at times controversial activist.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/C. Gonzalez
Kings of hope
US President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama visited a Washington homeless shelter in January 2017, where they helped finish a mural of Martin Luther King. Obama was the first-ever African American to be elected president of the United States.
