Shawnta Freeman · Sewanee: Black Lives Matter Oral History Project

Interviewee/ Narrator

Shawnta Freeman

Interviewer

Lizzy Ray

Date

October 26, 2023

Location of the Interview

Zoom

Length

56 minutes, 24 seconds

Abstract

Shawnta Freeman was born in Washington D.C. and currently lives in Oxon Hill, Maryland. She has spent some time working for Wells Fargo as a Senior Business Accountability Specialist but began working as a teller about 18 years ago. One topic that was covered throughout the interview was the education program throughout the US, and how a lot of school districts don’t dive beneath the surface when teaching about the Civil Rights Movement. Freeman touches on when she was growing up in the D.C. school system and how she was able to learn things that her daughter didn’t learn in the North Carolina school system or in the Maryland school system—not necessarily educating on Black Power, but educating on black influences throughout the world. She believes the Black Lives Matter Movement is still making an impact, even with the negatives being picked out by the news and believes that it is still an influential movement in her community. With her community viewing the movement as a realization that it’s time everyone is treated equally, she believes that the Black Lives Matter movement was the glue for bringing communities across the country together. Another topic that Freeman touches on is policies for imprisonment within the country and how the laws are targeted against black people. She also talks about the training of the police, and how “defund the police'' doesn't mean to take away the police, but to educate them more, train them more, and employ mental health units to respond to certain calls. Shawnta Freeman wants the future to be led by younger generations, generations that will move the movement forward.