Gwen Carr, 71, has been lots of things in her life: A mother, grandmother, long-distance operator, bookkeeper, subway train conductor. But she didn’t find her true calling until tragedy pushed her into it: activist and angel of justice.

Some women seek out reinvention at this age; others have it thrust upon them.

Carr’s son is Eric Garner, who was killed in Staten Island by a white NYPD police officer who used a chokehold on July 17, 2014. In almost a flip of a switch, a bereaved Carr remade herself, becoming, in the words of Rev. Al Sharpton, the “symbol of a movement.”

“She just exploded,” her daughter Ellisha Garner-Samuels told Vanity Fair in an extensive profile of her mother. “Have you ever seen that Jay Z and Beyoncé video with the fire?” Garner-Samuels asks. “She went in the car, the car exploded, she came out the other side, and she was Sasha Fierce? That was my mommy…she just came out on fire. Sometimes I look at her and I’ll be like, Mommy is that you?”

Some women seek out reinvention at this age; others have it thrust upon them.

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Gwen Carr: Turning Heartbreak into Action

Carr didn’t waste anytime getting on the warpath. She publicly criticized New York City mayor Bill de Blasio for his inept handling of the case, she helped get anti-chokehold legislation passed, and was influential in the enactment of federal legislation like theEric Garner Excessive Use of Force Prevention Act. She’s spoken often on national TV and at the 2020 Democratic National Convention. Politicians seek out her endorsement.

Garner’s dying words—”I can’t breathe”—were the same ones spoken by George Floyd six years later. A heartbreaking example of history repeating itself.

Even with all the pressure, black men still died at police hands at alarming rates. The fact that Garner’s dying words—”I can’t breathe”—were the same ones spoken by George Floyd six years later is one of the most heartbreaking examples of history repeating itself.

Carr was pushed in front of even more cameras last summer during the national upheaval over Floyd’s death. That’s when she began working with Benjamin Crump, the civil rights lawyer who frequently represents Black families whose family members have been killed by police. At Crump’s side, she met with lawmakers in Washington D.C. to advocate for the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act.

Just as importantly, Carr has been a source of solace and solidarity for other families who have joined the club no one wants to belong to. She has supported the Floyds, Wrights, and Browns—something she’s done for surviving families since her son’s death when she found comfort in Valerie Bell and Kadiatou Diallo, mothers who came face-to-face with police violence before her.

“She’s not fond of being labeled the mother of the movement; she thinks the title is ascribed to her simply because she’s the oldest of the group, ” Vanity Fair writes of her. But, she tells the magazine, “I try to help other mothers. I have gatherings sometimes where we talk. But we don’t talk about the tragic loss of our children; we talk about what it was that made us laugh, or how silly they were, or about a happy time. It makes me happy that I [can] help someone else.”

We applaud Carr’s courage and fierceness, and fervently hope no more mothers have to join her ranks.

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