Brenda Hong, founder Brenda’s Brown Bosom Buddies and Eric Hall, co-founder Black Lives Matter Birmingham Chapter, co-hosted Saturday’s Black Pride Ride in the Ensley Community. (Reginald Allen, For The Birmingham Times)
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Times staff report
The annual Black History Month Black Pride Ride in Birmingham on Saturday couldn’t have come at a better time, said organizers.
Hosted by Brenda’s Brown Bosom Buddies in partnership with Black Lives Matter Birmingham Chapter, the Ride comes as challenges to Black History, Voting Rights, Civil Rights and Immigrant Rights are underway by the Trump Administration.
“With what we’re dealing with every day, what has come before and this administration, if we don’t come together there’s going to be no salvage for us,” said Brenda Hong, founder of BBBB and one of the organizers. “Without unity, there is no community.”
Eric Hall, co-founder of BLM Birmingham called the Pride Ride “a testament of the resilience of Black people, an affirmation of our identities, and more importantly it’s a declaration and proclamation to those who don’t value Black people that Black lives matter.”
The ride began at McAlpine Park and Recreation in Ensley and made its way to Erskine Hawkins Park where several hundred gathered.
Hong said she was pleased to see more young people
in attendance and part of the program.
“[For] me to reach out to the young people and they responded made me better than I’ve felt since I was declared cancer-free,” she said. “This is not a dream, but a prayer and I’m touched by it because I know with older people in the organizations, when they die the organizations die. The impact on the community declines.”
Having young people present was not just to make them aware of Black History Month, but to “make them aware of our culture,” Hong said. “We’re not supposed to be fighting and killing each other. We have to come together and if we don’t do it during Black History Month when are we going to do it?”
Attendees and speakers included Jefferson County Sheriff Mark Pettway; Jefferson County Commissioners Sheila Tyson and Lashunda Scales; Birmingham City Councilor LaTonya Tate; Jefferson County Probate Court Judge Yashiba Blanchard and Judge Patricia Stephens.
Representing Grassroots organizations were the Civil Rights Foot Soldiers, Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Black Lives Matter Birmingham, Transgender Advocates Knowledgeable Empowering (TAKE), Margins Women Helping Black Women, YellowHammer Fund Reproductive Justice Organization, and Black Voters Matters.
“Our struggles are interconnected,” Hall said. “When we come together, when we unite our voices and our visions, we shall overcome. Freedom is a constant struggle.”
Quoting activist Assata Shakur, Hall said, “It is our duty to fight for our freedom. It is our duty to win. We must love each other and support each other. We have nothing to lose but our chains.”
“Let those words echo in our hearts,” Hall said, “for they remind us of the sacred responsibility we bear — not only to ourselves but to each other.”
