Black lives matter in Washington BY Beverly Bell, July 2020 _Note: This series began as a broader photo project with my daughter in our home in Chiapas, Mexico, during the COVID quarantine of 2020. As protests sparked by the murder of George Floyd gained steam in the US during the summer of 2020, the series increasingly came to focus on Black Lives Matter. _ ONÈ RESPÈ, HONOR AND RESPECT, MARIE MARCELLE BUTEAU RACINE May 31, 1934 – July 23, 2020
Marie Racine left behind her failed body and mind on July 23, 2020. It is my hope that she flew her beautiful self away to a place where exist the principles, love, and justice that she worked so hard for on this planet.
Marie magnificently lived out the Biblical verse by the prophet Micah: "Act justly, love mercy, walk humbly with thy God." She was kind, generous, selfless, committed, integrity-filled, impassioned, indefatigable, humble, and spiritually evolved. It has been my honor and joy to have known Marie since 1984, when we met at a demonstration in Washington against the dictatorship of Jean-Claude Duvalier. I knew her as a champion of equity and justice for Black people, human rights, women's rights, and democracy - all on global levels. In her own town, I knew her as co-founder of the University of the District of Columbia, which opened in 1977. Marie dedicated herself to co-creating and co-leading the only public institution of higher learning in DC, so that African Americans could have equal access to education. I knew her as director of the linguistics department, professor, and dean of students at UDC; summertime teacher to peasant children in Haiti; assistant to President Aristide during the coup d'état of his first, hopeful term; volunteer with many non- profits; and co-author of Like the Dew that Waters the Grass: Words of Haitian Women . I knew Marie as someone deeply troubled by the injustices of the world. Among other things, this caused her and her beloved husband to flee into exile with their family in 1966, because they couldn't bear to raise their two young children under the moral depravity of the François Duvalier regime. It also caused her to work endlessly on behalf of a rights-based and humane homeland and world. I knew Marie as the mother and heroine of DC's Attorney General, Karl Racine, who – guided by her moral compass – is shaking up Trumpland. I knew Marie as "pa ka pa la," cannot _not _ be there, always showing up to help or simply lend the support of her presence. I knew her as connoisseur and collector of Haitian and other African diaspora art; exquisite orator and singer; divine dancer whose body moved with the fluidity of water; admirer of peoples and cultures. We shared love and respect; passion for a transmuted world; collaboration on the boards of Washington Office on Haiti, FONKOZE, Lambi Fund, and Center for Economic Justice, as well as in Aristide’s administration (again, first term); travels around the US, plus Haiti, Mexico, and Cuba; elation and devastation as Haiti and dreams for its transformation rose and fell; adoration of Rev. Antoine Adrien, spiritual rock of Haiti’s popular movement, who was also her uncle and my greatest mentor; and so much more. What a privilege to have been united with Marie in existence and experiences. I was endlessly inspired by her, and am grateful for her life which brightened this pained planet. _Chapo ba, chè Marie, fanm vanyan, sè m. _
A low bow, dear Marie, warrior woman, my sister.