Have you seen her? Bluffton woman keeps lone Black Lives Matter protest going 11 weeks
Eleven weeks ago, 24-year-old Chelsea Powell of Bluffton attended a Black Lives Matter protest.
There were nine people there.
The next day, five people showed up.
On the third day, she was alone.
She has held her solitary vigil every day since, enduring sweltering heat and hecklers, holding a sign that reads “Black Lives Matter” and waving at passersby on busy Bluffton and Hilton Head routes.
She’s been flipped off, and she checks herself instead of repeating a curse word she hears regularly. “I’ve been told to F-off,” she said. “But a lot of people have also brought me a water bottle. People will honk a lot, which is cool.”
The amount of anger directed toward Powell is nothing compared to the hate shown to people of color, she explained. That’s what pushes her to continue.
“I wanted to use my white privilege and speak up,” she said. “I wanted to stand for something.”
Helping people
Powell’s family moved to Bluffton from northern Virginia when she was a preteen, and she graduated from Bluffton High. She earned a bachelor’s degree in human services from University of South Carolina Beaufort last August.
USCB’s website explains that a human services degree prepares students to “make a positive difference” by practicing “the art and science of care.” Those with a degree in human services might find jobs as probation officers, counselors or social workers, for example.
“Human services is working with people. It’s just helping people,” Powell said. “I’ve always wanted to help people.”
That desire to help people started early for Powell, who credits her parents with teaching her compassion from a young age.
“It doesn’t cost anything to be nice to someone,” she said. “I’ve always been taught to love everyone, be nice to everyone.”
While Powell is looking for a job in her field of study, she is working as a nanny for a family with a 1-year-old and at Starbucks in Bluffton.
She lives with her mom in a community off Buckwalter Parkway and takes comfort in her dog Jake, who was adopted last year from Palmetto Animal League.
Dogs “love you unconditionally and they teach you to love unconditionally,” she said.
Sign of change
Powell got involved in the Black Lives Matter movement earlier this year after the killing of Ahmaud Arbery, a young black man who was out for a run in Brunswick, Ga., when he was fatally shot. She and her mother paid tribute with a 2.23-mile run.
Then came the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis at the hands of police during an arrest on Memorial Day, triggering protests nationwide including in Bluffton, Beaufort, Hilton Head and Savannah.
“I’m just trying to spread awareness,” Powell said. “I know a lot of people will be, like, ‘All lives matter.’ ... All lives can’t matter until black lives do.”
To counter her detractors, she offers an example that seems to speak to people who live or vacation on the coast.
When wildlife advocates say, “Save the whales,” people don’t immediately respond, “Save all the animals,” she explained. The focus on whales doesn’t mean other animals are less important, just that they are more endangered.
Powell moves her vigil around Bluffton and Hilton Head, bouncing from U.S. 278 to Buckwalter Parkway, May River Road and elsewhere so she can reach a wide range of drivers. She welcomes anyone who would like to join her and says people can check her Facebook page for more information.
“People ask how much longer am I going to stand out there for, and I don’t know.”
For now, she’ll be holding her sign, waving at cars with license plates from Florida and New York and Ohio, responding with a smile to those who wave back and those who curse at her alike.
“I know I’m not going to end racism,” she said, “but at least my sign is being seen.”
This story was originally published August 12, 2020 at 3:14 PM.
