Photo Credit: Eunique Jones Photography
One year ago Eunique Jones Gibson had a dream, in the metaphorical sense. It was six months after the birth of her second son and she began reflecting on the future of her children and the “opportunities they could pursue as a result of the progress and achievements made by individuals past and present.” Her reflections were also in the wake of the Trayvon Martin case and her concerns as the mother of two black boys. With those concerns she started the “I Am Trayvon Martin” photo campaign in which she photographed everyday people wearing hoodies. From there she started “Because of Them We Can” a campaign which started as a Black History Month feature and then rolled into a year-long project because of Jones-Gibson’s realization that “28 days wasn’t enough.” The “Because of Them We Can” campaign features children posing as notable figures in black history and their resemblance is often uncanny. But, more significant than that is how Jones helps these children embody historical figures. An embodiment that we must hope will enable them to always recall what is possible because they’ve spent some time walking in their shoes in the most literal sense. An embodiment that takes them beyond the 28 days in February allotted for mass recognition of our history into the other 337 days where we must remember the work that was done and is still being done toward our liberation.
But, in celebration of this month that we still are grateful for, Gibson recently released the latest video in the BOTWC series which finds a young woman reenacting Rosa Parks’s bus experience. Watch the video below and check out more of Eunique Jones Gibson’s work on “Because of Them We Can.”