Oral History Interview with Lauren Bradley

Title: Oral History Interview with Lauren Bradley
Interviewee: Lauren Bradley
Interviewer: Lyberti Bradley
Description: Lauren Bradley, of Pensacola, Florida was interviewed by Lyberti Bradley, Sewanee student, on November 29, 2023 on Zoom. Their conversation was primarily on the Black Lives Matter Movement, and Lauren Bradley’s professional and personal ties to the Black Lives Matter Movement. We hope that this conversation will assist scholars with a further understanding of race in the United States during the early twenty-first century. Please click on the link to see the full interview.
Transcript: 0:02 Lyberti Bradley: It makes my heart beat too fast and my resting heart rate's already high.

0:10 Lauren Bradley : Oh yeah. No, don't, don't do good.

0:17 Lyberti Bradley: Okay, so I'm going to share this on, can you see it?

0:23 Lauren Bradley : Not yet. It says your screen is sharing yet. I don't see it yet though.

0:27 Lyberti Bradley: Okay. But basically it's just going to tell you, it's just the script for the first part of the interview. And then after that I'm going to ask you, I'm going to scroll down and there's general questions and stuff like that. And then I may stray from some of those questions based on your answers. But other than that, that's really all I'm really asking you is about your background and then your encounters with the Black Lives Matter movement. Okay. This is the first little script part, and I'll start. So this is Lyberti Bradley from Sewanee University of South. It is November 29th, 2023 at 6:41 PM And I am with,

1:31 Lauren Bradley : Do I need to say my name? Yes. Oh, Lauren Bradley.

1:35 Lyberti Bradley: And you're from

1:37 Lauren Bradley : Brewton, Alabama.

1:39 Lyberti Bradley: Okay. Thank you Ms. Bradley for being here. So where are you originally from? Where were you born?

1:48 Lauren Bradley : I was born in Montgomery, Alabama.

1:52 Lyberti Bradley: Okay. And then where did you grow up?

1:55 Lauren Bradley : I grew up in Brewton, Alabama.

1:58 Lyberti Bradley: All right. And where do you live currently?

2:01 Lauren Bradley : I currently live in Pensacola, Florida.

2:04 Lyberti Bradley: Okay. And how is where you live currently different from where you raised?

2:12 Lauren Bradley : Where I live currently, I would say is probably more urban. It's the biggest difference. There's a lot more resources, and a lot more opportunity. They actually have the same industry, so this area is very much so the industries in this area are like logging and paper mills is very industrial in that regard. But, I would just say resources and the opportunities are different. Education is actually better where I grew up in Alabama as far as elementary and elementary education and intermediate education, it's definitely better in Brewton, Alabama.

3:08 Lyberti Bradley: And then to follow up, where did you find community as a child?

3:15 Lauren Bradley : As a child, I mostly saw community at church and within my family I went to a family church; so that is why those correlate. I think that I found community at school as well because I did sports.

3:42 Lyberti Bradley: Yeah. Okay. And then where do you find community today?

3:47 Lauren Bradley : Community now is mostly found at work or at my son's school, and then also with the church that I attend, I made, I'm very blessed to have made lifelong friends. And so we have a virtual community now. We still talk on FaceTime and do all the things. But yeah, those are the places that I find community.

4:14 Lyberti Bradley: And what's your occupation and how'd you get there?

4:21 Lauren Bradley : I am currently a law clerk and aspiring attorney for legal reasons, I cannot say that I'm an attorney. I went right out of high school to a junior college and I had a full scholarship and I played volleyball there. I then went to the University of Alabama at Birmingham and studied public health for two years, and I graduated from there. And I did a lot of government and nonprofit work, a lot of community work. And then I went to the, maybe two years, three years later, I went to Sanford University, Cumberland School of Law. I attended there for three years. And while I was in law school, it was my second year of law school, I clerked here in Pensacola for the first half of my summer. And I did study abroad at Cambridge University in Cambridge, England. And then I came back here, finished my third year, and then they offered me a job at the beginning of my third year. So that is how I got to my present day as a law clerk.

5:45 Lyberti Bradley: Okay. And if you don't mind me asking, how old are you?

Lauren Bradley :
5:51 Lyberti Bradley: When did you first encounter social media?

5:55 Lauren Bradley : I'm 29. I think that I first encountered social media, I would say like 12, 12 or 13. I had to have my own phone. And then I had to have a phone that was old enough to do it. Actually, I was on social media on online, Jesus Christ, back when MySpace was a thing. Oh my goodness. Yes. So I would say 12.

6:24 Lyberti Bradley: Okay, so that makes you a millennial?

6:28 Lauren Bradley : Yes.

6:29 Lyberti Bradley: Okay. And that'll make more sense in future questions. So you mentioned that you went to England for a study abroad. Have you done any other traveling?

6:42 Lauren Bradley : I have traveled internationally to Mexico, the Dominican Republic, I also traveled to France while I was studying abroad in England. And let's see, I travel a lot domestically in the United States, so I actually have a trip coming up. I will be in Colorado this time next week. So yes. Yeah.

7:18 Lyberti Bradley: A follow up to that question, which place did you find the most interesting?

7:26 Lauren Bradley : England! I would have to say England was the most interesting. Are you going to follow up with why

7:33 Lyberti Bradley: Yeah.

7:34 Lauren Bradley : Okay. I don't want to keep rambling on this. So as soon as we got to England, I was there, like I said, to study abroad in my entire cohort. We all agreed in class that we felt more safe. We felt more safe, specifically because we did not feel threatened. It didn't seem like a very violent environment, although we were aware that we could get pickpocketed, a fight could break out at a party, we could have been kidnapped. Those things are real, but we overall felt more safe and we considered, we contemplated in class whether we felt more safe because there were not guns on the street, whether we didn't feel like racism was as pervasive in their culture. We had a lot of questions. So I actually stayed in London that first week before moving on to Cambridge.
8:41 And same thing everywhere in England . We went to Brighton Beach in England, which is the equivalent to our Miami, some say. So, yeah, we just felt more safe overall, I would say that's the reason why it was more interesting. Also, their geography is tiny compared to America, it was astounding how small they were geographically. From a north part of England and Cambridge to Brighton Beach was maybe a three hour train ride, a five hour drive, which is the difference between here and Atlanta. And that was literally the width of the north to the south, give or take maybe two or three hours to Scotland. So it's very small geographically as well.

9:46 Lyberti Bradley: Okay. And then what race and ethnicity do you identify with most?

9:55 Lauren Bradley : I am black.

9:57 Lyberti Bradley: Okay. And how has that impact your experiences in your hometown?

10:03 Lauren Bradley : In my hometown, actually my volleyball coach told me that he wanted me to quit the team. I had letters from other school playing volleyball. I actually did a whole campaign where I'm marketing myself, put my videos out there to make sure I had enough exposure to go as far as I wanted to go. I knew I wanted to play collegiate, so I was trying to get myself the best chance. I was made aware that my coach withheld a lot of my letters to PWIs, however, he did not withhold my letters to black colleges. And yes, I was told that I cannot go to an HBCU. I won't tell you about who.

11:00 Lyberti Bradley: Okay.

11:02 Lauren Bradley : Yeah

11:06 Lyberti Bradley: Sorry, you can continue.

11:08 Lauren Bradley : I think I did notice, I noticed that there was a lack of interaction overall, I would say it was absolutely clear that black kids hung with black kids and white kids hung with white kids. And there were very few, I would say, families from different races that interacted. It wasn't the same with the Hispanic kids. I actually hung out with the Hispanic kids in my school, Asian kids as well, played at their houses growing up, but it was very distinct, the black and white families.

11:53 Lyberti Bradley: And then tell me a little bit about your family and your family dynamic.

12:00 Lauren Bradley : Immediate. Okay. So both of my parents are married. They were married when they had me. They are both college educated. My mother has a master's degree and they both have certifications. They were both educators for the most part. I have four siblings and there are four, wait, three girls, four girls,, three girls and a boy. Not including myself, so total four girls and a boy. Yes, that is my immediate family. We all grew up together for the most part.

12:56 Lyberti Bradley: Okay. And then do you have any children yourself?

12:59 Lauren Bradley : I do. I have a child. He's four.

13:02 Lyberti Bradley: Okay. I asked you all that just to get some perspective about how you feel about family and how the Black Lives Matter movement can affect you in terms of understanding that you have a lot of female family members, but you have a son. And in the United States, we know that race relations, especially when it comes to black men, can be a little challenging. So I wanted to set that foreground before we started getting into any other questions.

13:41 Lauren Bradley : Okay. Yes.

13:44 Lyberti Bradley: Well, my first big question is how do you receive the news?

13:48 Lauren Bradley : How do I receive the news? I have specific news outlets that I check on my phone. Mostly. I read it from news articles and I also sometimes see little snippets of stories and social media. I follow some reporters and journalists and people who work in politics on cabinet levels and if they release anything, I'll look at that. So yes.

14:27 Lyberti Bradley: Okay. And how do you use social media?

14:36 Lauren Bradley : I use social media for interaction with people that I know. I guess Facebook is specifically for people that I know from Brewton. In regards to professional networking, I use Instagram to stay with my friends and market products.

15:07 Lyberti Bradley: And with that being said, when did you first encounter Black Lives Matter movement and where were you?

15:16 Lauren Bradley : I was living in Birmingham, Alabama. I think it became very prominent in 2020 when George Floyd was murdered. And I participated in some protests prior to that tragedy . I would say in 2017, 2018, around that time, Black Lives Matter was not as prominent. But yes, I would say more so around 2020 after George Floyd was murdered.

15:56 Lyberti Bradley: Okay. And then what's your opinion of the Black Lives Matter movement?

16:05 Lauren Bradley : First of all, there are so many facet to the Black Lives Matter movement. So you have a Black Lives Matter movement organization, and I think you have two prominent ones. I have no idea how that happens. The name was not trademarked, I'm not sure. But this is my current knowledge and understanding, I will use this as disclaimer. I'm probably going to go do some more research on this after this interview so I can make sure that I'm factual anyway. So you have, there's an organization that where black people organized and they inspired community organization throughout America.
17:00 They traveled and were right there along Ben Crump and other prominent civil rights attorneys as an organization that advocated for families and advocated for justice. That conveyed the news. What was actually happening. I think Black Lives Matter is massive for the dissemination of information. And what we started to realize is during George Floyd, I actually remember Sandra Bland and other things that had happened prior. So I think that 2017 is definitely an accurate date to go with because there were so many things that happened before 2020. But, Black Lives Matter was very prominent in disseminating certain information concerning what we now know as and perceive and hopefully recognize as police violence, just literally police commonly and regularly exhibiting their bias against black people.

18:38 Lyberti Bradley: I can give you a little bit of information about the history of the movement, and I've tried to do this in most of my interviews, but a lot of people don't know where the actual idea or the actual phrase, black Lives Matter comes from. And it comes from an activist named Alicia Garza from Oakland after the acquittal of George Zimmerman. She posted it on, I believe it was Twitter, and she wrote a love letter to black people. And in this letter she said, black people, I love you. I love us, our lives matter. And then another founder of the movement later tweeted, hashtag Black Lives Matter. So that's where we get the whole terminology. And I think it's very interesting that you brought up 2017 because a lot of our class has been spent going through the actual chronological instances where Black Lives Matters started, and you mentioned Sandra Bland and other women that had died due to police brutality.
20:00 So that's kind of in my notes. In 2017, I believe that's when we started seeing more people raise awareness about people who had died from 2012 to that period. So obviously we're talking about Eric Gardner and Trayvon Martin, of course. And then even further than that, we have Oscar Grant in 2009, and then Anthony Lamar Smith in 2011. So I guess I feel like I've had a lot of people in my interviews say that 2020 or the start of Covid is when they really began to see the movement in the, and a lot of that was due to us being inside and only being able to use social media, but police brutality and the loss of black life due to the police and other systems of oppression has been happening for a very long time. We even go back in class to Rodney King in 1991. But I think it's very interesting that you as a person that's in law and works in government, saw the early progression of the movement, and I feel like a lot of people didn't see it in the mainstream until 2020. So that being said, what was your community's reaction to Black Lives Matter, the movement?

21:38 Lauren Bradley : Oh my gosh. So at the time, in 2020 specifically, I began working this summer of 2020 in the Birmingham Mayor's Office under the Mayor Randall Woodfin. He is Birmingham's mayor. He comes from a line of great mayors. There's Fred Shuttlesworth. Birmingham has such a rich history of good leaders throughout the entire community. And so I'm very thankful to have been inundated and surrounded with very educated conversation, intellectual conversation. I worked in the Office of Social Justice and Civil Rights at that time, and I'm smiling because I'm just so proud of my community at the time. I'm very proud of the community that rallied together. I looked outside one day and people were protesting and my office went and joined the protest. It was beautiful. I felt very united in something that was bigger than myself for myself, for my people, for my family, for my community, for black men, black women, black children, black babies in the black future. It was really deep. It was a very beautiful feeling of being united. We always have had moments of hopelessness, I would say really since 2020 because it seemed like so many things were happening, but there was always someone encouraging. And then just being in a community where you see black people and white people ally, truly ally, it was beautiful. It was a good experience.
23:41 It was a good experience overall. It was very devastating, of course, devastating to see what was happening in our community. I think there was so many different aftershocks after the murder of George Floyd, but one big one was the unity that I felt throughout my community. I'm very aware that that wasn't the case everywhere, but I also feel like it was seen. It was happening.

24:10:00 Lyberti Bradley: I'm glad that you brought up this feeling of unity because I was going to ask you how Black Lives Matter impacted your life personally. And I feel like you touched on that a little bit, but if you would like to expound upon that, that would be great.

24:24:00 Lauren Bradley : Yeah, I think Black Lives Matter specifically. Providing a way for everyone to be a part of this great movement, a part of the activism, really rallying people was amazing to see that. That is when I became aware of the term community organizers. You had community organizers who were working together in local communities with people and members of the Black Lives Matter organization. So yeah, it was good to see something like that happening at that time specifically.

25:23:00 Lyberti Bradley: Okay. And you mentioned how the movement affected how you spoke to people in your community and your friends and your family. You felt this great sense of unity, but how did it affect the way that you interacted with people of other races, especially at the time,

25:44:00 Lauren Bradley : They were so uncomfortable. I think where I was, the white people.

Part of Lauren Bradley