One of the first things Nekima Levy Armstrong saw after spending the night in a Minnesota jail on federal charges was a photo of herself in handcuffs that the White House had altered significantly, giving her darker skin and making it seem as though she had wept hysterically upon being arrested.
“The federal government could not break me during my arrest, so they put out an image attempting to portray me as being broken,” Armstrong said. “Historically, it’s not unlike the ways in which Black people have been caricaturized, using these images of Sambos and mammies and darkened skin.”
“It’s a way of dehumanizing us,” said Armstrong, a civil rights attorney and activist who previously served as president of the Minneapolis NAACP.
Armstrong was detained after federal agents arrested her for leading what the Donald Trump administration’s top civil rights attorney called a “demonic and godless” display: a demonstration that briefly interrupted a service at Cities Church in Saint Paul, where one of the Midwest’s top Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials serves as a pastor.
The demonstration, which involved dozens of people, made national headlines, partially because journalist Don Lemon, a former CNN anchor, was there to livestream. Several waves of aggressive arrests followed as the government identified alleged protesters; 39 people, including Lemon, now face federal charges related to the incident — and potentially years behind bars.
