Transcript from IMKC "When They See Her: The Story of Michelle Cusseaux"
Kimberlé Crenshaw: I’m Kimberlé Crenshaw, and this is Season 2 of Intersectionality Matters, the podcast that brings intersectionality to life by exploring the hidden dimensions of today’s most pressing issues, from #SayHerName and #MeToo to the war on civil rights and the global rise of fascism. This idea travelogue lifts up the work of leading activists, artists and scholars and helps listeners understand politics, the law, social movements and even their own lives in deeper and more nuanced ways.
In 2014, I received an email from my friend and mentor, Barbara Arnwine. She said, "You gotta look at this," and when I clicked on it, I saw something that I'd never seen before. There was a black woman carrying a coffin around Downtown Phoenix, Arizona with a few others, and they were all shouting, "Justice for Michelle!"
Michelle, as it turns out, was Michelle Cusseaux. Michelle was killed in her own home when a police detail was dispatched to her house on a mental health call. This was five days after Mike Brown was killed in Ferguson. Fran Garrett, the woman who was pictured in the video, was Michelle's mother. Fran decided that she was not going to let the world forget or ignore the fact that her daughter, Michelle Cusseaux, was senselessly killed by the police.
Fast forward three months later, we're all in New York City. This time we're protesting the No Bill against the killer of Eric Garner. We're in a crowd of tens of thousands of people marching, demanding justice, saying the names of Eric Garner, of Mike Brown, of Tamir Rice. And some of us started saying the names of Michelle Cusseaux and Tanisha Anderson, other black women who’ve been killed by the police.
The response of people at the march told us everything we needed to know about the imperative behind Say Her Name. Now a few people said that they were glad that we were saying these names. They were aware that black women were killed by the police. Some of them had been working on this issue. A lot of people were absolutely astonished that women and girls were also killed by the police. They stood in front of our banners, they took pictures. They tried to say each and every name. But there were some who were offended that we were talking about women and girls in this march. Some even asked us, "Where are the men?" Our response was, "The men are on every other poster. The men are on everyone's tongues. What we're trying to do is make sure people understand that when we march against racist police misconduct, when we march and demand the safety of black bodies, we are demanding the safety for all black bodies that are subject to police violence and that includes people of all genders within the African American community.
So, in that moment it became clear that there were two vulnerabilities that black women face. One, they also are vulnerable to police violence, but two, very few people know about it. Very few people know their names. Very few people mobilize around their senseless deaths. It's at that point that Say Her Name was born.
Kim Crenshaw: On this episode, we talked to Fran Garrett, the mother of Michelle Cusseaux, to get some sense of the backdrop. What was it that led her to exercise this act of political agency, even as she was grieving? What was her history of activism? She told us that her activism actually started way back in the 60s, working with the Black Panthers.
Fran Garrett:
Yeah, actually, this really goes back quite some time. Actually, I got started in Oakland, California years ago as an activist working with the Panthers. We started off with the food program for kids, giving the children of our community breakfast. Worked along with Huey and Loraine. That’s pretty much how I got started, way back in the sixties.
Kim Crenshaw:
So being involved with the Panthers, I would imagine that the threat of police violence did come up.
Fran Garrett:
Now if that’s what we’re speaking on, I saw a lot of police brutality in our community. Men, women, and kids.
Kim Crenshaw:
Women and kids as well! I think a lot of people might be surprised that police abused women and children. So what kind of police abuse might be common?
Fran Garrett:
It was just the way of life, the way they treated us, I’ve seen them verbally abuse us, physically abuse us, they would use certain people as examples for us to back off.
Kim Crenshaw:
What do you mean by that, “Used people as examples?”
Fran Garrett:
To maybe beat one, as an example for the rest of us. “If you don’t do what we say, this is gonna happen to you.”
Kim Crenshaw:
So let’s talk a little bit about your children. And in particular, your son.
Fran Garrett:
Yes, David [Cusseaux].
Kim Crenshaw:
Was he older than Michelle?
Fran Garrett:
Yes. Michelle was the baby. He was the middle child.
Kim Crenshaw:
And tell us a little bit about David.
Fran Garrett:
Oh God. He was a- he was an activist. Actually in school, he was an altar boy. Just an all around kid, good natured. He was killed through a drive-by in the early 80s.
Kim Crenshaw:
He was killed?
Fran Garrett:
Yeah, he was leaving my mom's home and taking a friend of his, his jacket. A kid that he kind of mentored. A blind boy and he was taking this kid, his coat home. On the way, he just happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time, and was murdered.
Kim Crenshaw:
Who killed him, Fran?
Fran Garrett:
A group of men coming from Berkeley. Someone had done something to their dog earlier that day in East Oakland, they became irate, went home, got weapons, and came back and just started to shoot anybody they saw walking the streets in Oakland.
Kim Crenshaw:
So this was just a random drive by.
Fran Garrett:
Exactly.
Kim Crenshaw:
So let’s fast forward ahead to 2014. At that point you had moved to Phoenix, but you were back in California on August 14th. Why were you back in California?
Fran Garrett:
For a hearing to see if the guy who killed my- murdered my son, to see if they were suitable for parole.
Kim Crenshaw:
And what were you hoping to contribute to the hearing?
Fran Garrett:
This particular gentleman, I’ve seen him grow through the years. I had accepted his apology. Two lives were lost- this young man's life was just gone after years in prison. My son. And I had gone to the suitability hearing a few years before that and I recommended to the board that this young man continue about four or five more years in prison.
So this time when I go back, I saw a change, a great change, and I discussed it with Michelle and I was gonna recommend that they release him and she was in agreement with that, you know.
Kim Crenshaw:
Wow. So you are in California. You and Michelle had discussed that this young man who killed her brother should get a second chance and so you were there to advocate that he should be set free.
Fran Garrett:
Exactly, and offered to assist him because I know it's rough out here, with resources, referrals, and his re-entry back into society.
Kim Crenshaw:
Wow. What an amazing act. Here the family is not only willing to allow him to have a second chance, but actually affording him some assistance in doing so. So you're there in California, you're doing this and what's happening in Phoenix with Michelle at this point?
Fran Garrett:
Earlier that morning, her case manager from the mental health agency had called me and Michelle had not been on her medication.
Kim Crenshaw:
And what was she being medicated for, Fran?
Fran Garrett:
Bipolar Schizophrenic.
Kim Crenshaw:
And she was usually managing that diagnosis well?
Fran Garrett:
Oh yes, in fact, Michelle had gone back to school. They had classes. Graduated at the top of her class, and she was working. This particular time she had been laid off and that's why she was upset that day. And normally when Michelle would have a bad day or something, they would call, I would go meet them or they would bring her to me. This time I'm out of town. So they sent the police out to check on Michelle. Michelle was in her home, speaking to them through the security door, told them that she was okay. She didn't see a need to have to go anywhere with them.
Kim Crenshaw:
And what was the need, if it was a wellness check? They went to the place, she was calm, she was in her own home. Why didn't the encounter end once it was affirmed that she was okay?
Fran Garrett:
Someone else came to the scene, the sergeant.
Kim Crenshaw:
It’s hard to imagine that life can turn on something so unnecessary and at the same time so deadly as an untrained officer licensed to exercise deadly force on a whim, in a situation that calls only for compassion.