When we developed a family-friendly action, FREEDOM FRIDAYS: A Family Walk & Chalk for Black Lives, we had no idea that chalking the sidewalk was legally considered graffiti in Oakland.

I would like to begin the defense with Exhibit A: Sidewalk Chalk. This chalk is used by children to write on cement, and washes off easily. IT IS CALLED SIDEWALK CHALK. This type of chalk is associated with hopscotch and other messages children write on public walkways. In our Freedom Friday action, we used it to write slogans for the movement for Black lives.

Our group is led by young Black people ages 8-12, and they decided to call themselves BLACK KIDS FOR BLACK LIVES. They adopted five demands. The first three of which are the demands of the Movement for Black Lives:

• Defund Police
• Invest in Black communities
• Remove Donald Tr*mp

Last week they added a demand: give young people a voice in decisions in all the institutions that affect them. This week they added the demand: release all the young people being held in ICE detention.

The June 26th action was fun and powerful. The young people gave a short speech under the Fairyland sign, then we marched a mile to the courthouse and chanted. Finally we chalked. (See images). The kids and families were incredibly creative in their chalking.

But after about half an hour, a middle-aged Black man came out and started yelling at us. He is a custodian at the courthouse and was upset because he would be tasked with cleaning up the chalking. I tried to talk to him, attempting to de-escalate the situation. He insisted that we were pressuring the young people into activism, that they did not make the choice to protest and would rather be home playing play station.

Here is a snippet of our confrontation to the best of my ability to recall:

ME: Brother, I’m sorry that we’ve made more work for you. Can you tell me where your responsibility ends? Will you still have to clean it up if we chalk across the street?

HIM: It’s always gonna be someone’s job to have to clean it up.

ME: But we know that’s not true because we’ve been chalking on sidewalks all over town and no one comes to clean it up. Eventually the rain cleans it up.

HIM: Well then go do it by your house. You people are idiots.

 

There are certainly ways in which we were uninformed. It had never occurred to us that it was illegal to chalk on public sidewalks, with “sidewalk chalk.” One of the other parents and I went and researched and sure enough. We found the exact language from the Oakland municipal code.

8.10. 120 – Graffiti Unlawful. A. It is unlawful and a violation of the Oakland Municipal Code and this Chapter for any person to write, paint, spray, chalk, etch, or otherwise apply Graffiti (as defined in Section 8.10).

We also found articles about people who have been arrested for chalking protest slogans. There is legal debate here about whether or not this is free speech protected by the constitution. If a city is prepared to prosecute all cases of chalking, that’s different than if they only prosecute cases where they disagree with the content of the speech.

So chalking a hopscotch course on the sidewalk would have to be a crime if chalking Defund Police is also a crime. I was aware that African American scholar Jill Nelson had been arrested for chalking an anti-Tr*mp slogan on an abandoned building in her New York City neighborhood, but I had wrongly assumed that was simply a case of police harassment.

After I had the altercation with the courthouse custodian, one of the other moms wisely suggested that we chalk a message to the Alameda County Courthouse staff asking them not to instruct their custodians to clean up the chalking and instead let our young people’s messages stand for all to see.

It was a good lesson for everyone about the complexity of public protest. Actions can sometimes add to the burdens of working people. But our goals in protesting are about making the world fair to everyone, especially working people. Police–in particular–are working class people and many of them show kindness and integrity. But the institution of the police is designed to serve the interests of the owning class. Police systematically suppress people of color, poor and working class people, and they are also deployed to brutalize movements attempting to resist white supremacy and the concentration of wealth.

When the man was yelling at us, the young people paid him very little mind. He was just another bossy adult trying to tell them what to do. They objected to the idea that they couldn’t think for themselves or would rather be home playing video games. They had all decided to participate in the protest because they were angry about police violence.

When the youth leaders met again, the adult allies explained what we had learned about the law, and asked if they wanted to keep chalking in future actions. They suggested that if kids were allowed to use sidewalk chalk for hopscotch, but not protest, that they wanted to chalk hopscotch boards that contained movement messages and names of Black people killed by police. So kids could play hopscotch and call them out as they play:

One two three – set the migrant children free

Four five – Defend Black lives

Six seven eight nine – Tr*mp must resign

Ten eleven twelve – we can protect ourselves

Thirteen fourteen – invest in Black communities

Abolish ICE – Defund police – Power to the young people, we demand to speak!

We will be back every Friday in July, and from now on, we will be chalking by Lake Merritt, across the street…