This is Courtlin Arrington
She was shot and killed at Huffman High School in Birmingham, Alabama last week. Another student who she was with, was also injured. She was seventeen years old, a couple of weeks shy from her eighteenth birthday. She was accepted to Concordia College for Fall 2018 and had dreams of becoming a nurse. Her life was cut short because of gun violence, but she has not received the same national outcry as the Parkland, FL victims. Her story deserves to be heard.
National Walkout Day occurred yesterday morning, and hundreds of thousands of students walked out of their classrooms in solidarity and protest of gun violence. The demonstration was generally suppose to last for seventeen minutes for the seventeen victims of the Stoneman Douglass. However, one little girl added an extra minute for Courtlin.
Pictured on the left is fifth grader, Naomi, from Alexandria, Virginia, who organized a walkout with her friend Carter (pictured on the right). On the reason she included an extra minute, Naomi stated “when African-American women are killed their names aren’t *remembered, so I thought it was important to add”.
I was literally in tears reading this story. The fact that this little fifth grader organized a demonstration at eleven years old and honored her fellow Black sister, who no one paid attention to, speaks volumes. This is what it means to be a light. I am so proud of Naomi.
Rest in Peace Courtlin, you deserved better.