At the 13 minute mark of the video Ralph Baker and Ms. Chappelle-Nadal got an en epic exchange over the build up of mass incarceration of black men over the past 30 years:
Shock Exchange: When Clementa Pinckney was on the senate floor saying we think the police officers should have body cameras, this kid Roof was thinking that, “This guy is taking away my rights.”
Maria Chappelle-Nadal: I am a state senator and let me tell you four years ago when we went through this – tomorrow will be the fourth anniversary of the shooting of Mike Brown – We had all kinds of KKK, I mean all kinds … when Clemente and the other church members were killed I took this very seriously because we get death threats. When you stand up for black lives you get death threats. I got death threats … that’s part of our life that we have to go through, so it is serious.
When Ms. Chappelle-Nadal’s explained how the KKK tried to intimidate politicians and activists in Ferguson you could hear a pin drop. The entire crowd was silent. When she explained how she received deaths threats for standing up for black lives the conversation took an entirely different turn. The raw, hard truth is that there is a price to pay for standing up for African Americans or the poor or for those who do not have a voice in this country.
