West Virginia’s only Black lawmaker offers harrowing accounts of racism  

When Danielle Walker was elected as a West Virginia delegate in 2018, she grew to become the one Black girl within the state’s legislature.  

She’s since offered a voice which may in any other case not be heard for Black residents, who account for simply 4 p.c of the Mountain State’s inhabitants. 

It’s a place that has not given her immunity from the ugliest sorts of racism.  

In an emotional interview with The Hill, Walker recounted occasions during which she’s needed to stand in opposition to prejudice, white supremacy and threats of violence.  

Her place within the state legislature as an advocate for racial, financial and reproductive justice has led her to be focused by opponents, she stated.  

She stated she’s been adopted, obtained racist memes and felt unsafe to the purpose the place she’s notified the FBI. However she says none of this may quiet her or change how she does her job. 

“I don’t wish to be a storyteller,” Walker, 46, stated. “However I will likely be a reality teller.”  

Walker grew to become the one Black girl elected as a West Virginia delegate in 2018.   

Two years later, in a beforehand unreported incident, Walker stated she was adopted by a gaggle of white males in a pickup truck as she made her solution to a Sept. 12, 2020, Black Lives Matter rally in Kingwood, which is situated in a West Virginia legislative district bordering the one she represents. 

She had simply dropped her oldest son off at work — one thing she did actually because he has narcolepsy and can’t drive — and commenced the hourlong drive from Morgantown to Preston County. After a while driving alongside again roads, Walker observed a white Dodge pickup truck with 4 males following her. They had been white, and dressed identically in polo shirts and khakis, she stated. 

As she continued her drive, she might see them within the rearview mirror of her Suburban, which had her identify painted throughout the again window, yelling angrily and pointing in her course. 

Walker couldn’t inform if the lads had been armed however she felt threatened, so she become a McDonald’s parking zone. The truck adopted her there as nicely. 

Walker, who was not armed, stated she had her “Martin Luther King Jr./Malcolm X second” at that time and jumped out of her automobile to face down the lads. 

Standing subsequent to her Suburban along with her palms raised, Walker shouted to the lads within the truck, “I’m proper right here. Shoot if you happen to should, however don’t take this hate to this peaceable protest.” 

Walker then stated a white girl on the drive-thru observed Walker and came to visit to ask what was occurring. As Walker defined the place she was headed and that the lads had been following her, the lady known as her husband, paid for Walker’s meals and escorted her to the rally.   

“As I used to be ordering, I assumed at that second that is going to be my final supper,” Walker stated, her voice catching. “However I stood agency as a result of I stated I used to be gonna be there. This isn’t my district. This isn’t even my county. However these are my individuals.”  

Although Walker didn’t file a police report on the 4 white males, she stated she did file one after the rally for receiving an assassination risk. 

Walker has needed to put on physique armor at lots of the occasions she attends, together with peaceable protests, and he or she now carries a handgun. Earlier than these incidents, she stated, she solely saved shotguns and rifles in her house. 

Even in her personal district, she has obtained threatening messages.  

On the primary day of Black Historical past Month this yr, Berkeley County West Virginians for Life, an anti-abortion rights group, despatched Walker a meme of a klansman wearing full garb throwing up a Nazi salute.   

The caption learn, “What do you assume the coward hiding underneath his dunce cap and face masks thinks each time he hears a couple of black youngster has been aborted? Be Professional-Life as in case your race relied on it! It’s the America factor to do!”  

Walker is a staunch advocate for abortion rights, and he or she has been open about her personal abortion. The meme, she stated, was despatched after she and a colleague launched laws to reverse the abortion bans and obstacles in West Virginia. Walker obtained the meme; her colleague didn’t. 

Walker shared the message she obtained within the chamber a couple of days later, calling it one of the crucial “disrespectful, hateful, racist” messages she had ever obtained. However she additionally despatched a message to those that despatched her the e-mail, telling them it’s time to cease “hiding” behind the First Modification.  

“For a few of you who’ve solely seen a white sheet and that hat on motion pictures however not up shut and private, you might be privileged,” stated Walker, in keeping with The Washington Submit.

“However a few of us who needed to see the remnants in our picture album of Black church buildings being burned down, of Black males and Black youngsters, sons, being hanged in timber or drug behind automobiles or crushed to dying or poured with gasoline and set on fireplace, raping their wives, and even throwing bombs of their properties — how dare you ship that to me,” she stated.  

In a letter posted later, Richard Desmoske, president of Berkeley County West Virginians for Life, apologized for the “clearly racist picture” and stated he solely meant to “level out that racists would possible assist the eugenic abortion of Black individuals.”   

“In an effort to oppose racism, I composed a poorly designed and simply misunderstood meme that unintentionally conveyed racism,” he stated, including that he was resigning from his place.  

Walker has filed a civil lawsuit in opposition to West Virginians for Life and Desmoske, stating within the preliminary submitting in February that she believes her security has been threatened. She wears a protecting vest in and across the state Capitol, in keeping with Metro Information.   

It’s not the one time Walker says she has confronted threats. She stated she’s requested legislation enforcement and federal officers, together with the FBI, for extra safety to no avail. Walker’s personal marketing campaign now pays for her safety, however as a result of campaigns should not allowed to pay for safety, he’s known as an “assistant,” she added.  

West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice (R) didn’t instantly reply to requests for feedback in regards to the threats to Walker’s security, however Walker has beforehand despatched a letter asking the governor to publicly denounce white supremacy. 

Justice had the state police and the West Virginia Human Rights Fee have reached out to Walker. “The one different factor I’d add is; whether or not or not it’s both aspect, it doesn’t matter what or not it’s, we don’t must tolerate at any stage of hate, hatred and hate speech occurring wherever,” he stated to WDTV. 

Walker stated her experiences — and want for safety — have left her overly cautious about everybody she meets, from automobile mechanics to physicians to the pharmacists she talks to.   

“I don’t stroll my neighborhood,” Walker stated. “Not day by day of each hour do I would like safety. My physique has lifetime scars from sporting that physique armor.”  

“I’ve not stopped crying since 2019, and I’m not a crier. It’s the trauma. It’s the PTSD. It hurts [my family] to know that I want such robust safety measures for simply current.”  

Walker stated she’s considered stepping down from workplace and in 2020 debated searching for reelection. She finally determined that having the possibility to be a voice for her constituents is a privilege.   

“After I introduce myself, and I say I’m Delegate Danielle Walker, that may be a declaration of who, whom and whose I’m. That delegate is the individuals’s title. It doesn’t belong to me. And I must respect that,” she stated.  

“I take this job of being the individuals’s champ very critically,” Walker added. “I make it possible for these voters, supporters, donors are represented with each piece of laws, each vote I forged, each speech I give, each platform that I’m on. After I take that oath … it doesn’t say that I simply solely symbolize the individuals in my district. I symbolize each one that is inside the borders of West Virginia whether or not they can vote, whether or not they have an deal with or not, whether or not they’re passing by or not. Y’all means all.”