PRESENTED BY MICHAEL HENRIQUEZ
PRESENTED BY MICHAEL HENRIQUEZ
Student for Abolition
Students for Abolition (2020) – Co-founded by Matty Fall, Julie Bradley, and Michael Henriquez - Designed by Michael Henriquez
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Students for Abolition was a Lehigh Valley local grassroot organization co-founded by Matty Fall, Julie Bradley, and myself. Students for Abolition was led by the three of us with the support of Lehigh Valley locals to help construct community and solitude for the Black Lives Matter movement. As a collective group, we organized peaceful protests within the city leading marches with 500+ allies advocating for justice.
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Keynotes + Images
Students for Abolition was created during the midst of protests supporting George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter Movement. My friend Matty Fall was discussing the hardships of police brutality and how she believed our hometown needed to stand in solidarity. I designed a poster to spread the word. We went to Staples and printed about 200 flyers. We passed the flyers around town, hanging them up and spreading it on social media.
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Matty and I anticipated for about 50 allies to show up. We were astonished when we saw how many people started to arrive. The protest grew larger as the event went on. People were coming together; donating masks, wipes, cases of water bottles, even passing out extra signs during every protest. We led our first protest downtown, eventually shutting down the main bridge and our downtown area for a couple of hours. I saw people run outside of their houses, parking their cars and jumping right into the march. Students for Abolition held 3 protests in the Summer 2020 and assisted two protests outside of our hometown. Matty focused her speech on sharing the information studied by iconic civil rights activist. I would design flyers and center my speech on ally ship. Julie spent her time behind the scenes, assisting us in organizing information and protests. We conducted 3 meetings on diversity, bullying and racism within the educational system with the Bethlehem City Mayor, Chief of the Bethlehem Police Department and Superintendent of the Bethlehem Area School District.
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While participating in Students for Abolition I learned the importance of community and the power of coming together.
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Students for Abolition no longer organizes due to all the members returning to college.
Me speaking on the importance of allyship
Julie Bradley & Matty Fall