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Another bright spot, Charlotte activist was 2nd highest vote getter in City Council race
A little background on Braxton Winston:
Fist raised, he faced off with police. Here’s why this Davidson grad protests.
We followed a tip.
We heard that the shirtless man, fist clenched to the sky as he faced off against the Charlotte-Mecklenburg riot team in a photograph that went viral, was Davidson College graduate Braxton Winston.
Media outlets across the country chose this photograph by the Charlotte Observer’s Jeff Siner for their reports on the Charlotte protests. Winston’s stance of defiance illustrated the police-civilian tension that emerged from the Sept. 20 shooting of Keith Lamont Scott, 43, by CMPD Officer Brentley Vinson. The image, taken from behind, doesn’t show Winston’s face; one cannot identify him beyond an athletic upper body and long, dark dreadlocks. Perhaps that is why it became a defining image in the coverage.
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/article123858364.html
We followed a tip.
We heard that the shirtless man, fist clenched to the sky as he faced off against the Charlotte-Mecklenburg riot team in a photograph that went viral, was Davidson College graduate Braxton Winston.
Media outlets across the country chose this photograph by the Charlotte Observer’s Jeff Siner for their reports on the Charlotte protests. Winston’s stance of defiance illustrated the police-civilian tension that emerged from the Sept. 20 shooting of Keith Lamont Scott, 43, by CMPD Officer Brentley Vinson. The image, taken from behind, doesn’t show Winston’s face; one cannot identify him beyond an athletic upper body and long, dark dreadlocks. Perhaps that is why it became a defining image in the coverage.
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/article123858364.html
He ran for Charlotte City Council at-large. And won! He was the second highest vote getter, just a hair behind popular incumbent Julie Eiselt. He was close to being the mayor pro tem!
Link to tweet
Link to tweet
This is great news because, bluntly, it means that older white Democrats in Charlotte voted for a millennial (or close) black activist who demands more accountability and transparency in our police and local government. After the divisiveness of the primary and the ugly, racist politics of Trump and the NC GOP, this gives me hope that we can still come together on the left. Braxton is a GREAT candidate. Smart, fresh, young, idealistic. He looks like someone we know and like, not another plastic suit person. And this happened all over the country yesterday. Maybe their is hope for the Democratic Party now that more people are getting involved. (I still hate the 2-party system, but it's what we have to work with, at this point.)