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WHAT MATTERS NOW IN THE CITY
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LOGAN CYRUS
‘COME UP WITH A BETTER WAY’
During a May protest in Charlotte, Curtis Hayes Jr. passionately instructed a 16-year-old on the pain of generations of Black men. It was captured on video—and captured the minds of millions BY GREG LACOUR
ON SATURDAY, May 30, a demonstration that began in uptown reached Interstate 277, where protesters briefly occupied the elevated highway. On the concrete, 31-year-old Curtis Hayes Jr., a Black man, encountered two other Black men, a furious 45-year-old and a 16-year-old. A two-and-a-half-minute video of their exchange went viral. Hayes’ impassioned plea to the younger man, Vance High School* student Raymon Curry, to “come up with a better way” won him a global platform that, over the next few days, included interviews with Good Morning America and the BBC and a feature story in The Washington Post.
AUGUST 2020 // CHARLOTTE
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