This year’s United Black World Month began Thursday with keynote speaker Kadiatou Diallo, mother of shooting victim Amadou Diallo, and her presentation of “The Legacy of Amadou Diallo.”
In her first address to a college audience outside of the state of New York, Diallo shared the young life and untimely death of her eldest son.
“Many students have had questions and have wanted answers about what happened,” Diallo said. “This is a way to reach as many people as possible.”
According to Terina Matthews, interim coordinator of African-American Student Services, students have had the most difficulty accepting what happened to Amadou Diallo, and they have been asking the most questions.
On Feb. 3, 1999, Amadou Diallo was approached by four plain-clothes police officers while he stood in front of his New York City apartment building. The officers believed Amadou fit the description of a serial rapist that they were looking for. When he reacted in what the officers believed was a “suspicious manner,” they fired at him 41 times, hitting him with 19 of those bullets.
According to Diallo, the policemen never identified themselves as officers before they approached her son.
“His only crime was to believe that he could stand in front of his own apartment,” Diallo said.
At the end of the three-week trial, the officers were acquitted of all charges, and although officials have acknowledged that the death of Amadou Diallo was indeed a tragedy, no one has ever offered her as much as an apology.
“This is one of those tragedies that really makes you think,” said Monique Morrow, a senior in speech and hearing. “It makes you realize just how unfair our justice system still is today and how evident it is that racism still exists.”
In her fight to achieve justice for her son, Diallo has received the support of such leaders as Al Sharpton, Kweisi Mfume and David Dinkins. Despite this assistance, the U.S. attorney general notified Diallo on Jan. 31 that the case for her son was closed because he was unable to tell his own side of the story.
A civil suit has been filed against the New York City Police Department.
Throughout all of this, Diallo has not given up hope in the American justice system.
“I would hope that Amadou’s death will bring people together so people cannot judge somebody by the color of their skin,” Diallo said. “I still believe in this country, and I do not want my son’s dream to be just a dream.”
In an effort to promote positive changes within public city school systems, as well as relations between police departments and the citizens that they serve, the Amadou Diallo Foundation Inc. was founded.
“The initial purpose of the Amadou Diallo Foundation is to promote racial healing through activities, including programs in the public schools that seek to diminish prejudice and racial conflict and for scholarship support for African college or graduate students who want to study in the United States,” Diallo said. “A secondary purpose of the foundation is to fund programs seeking to enhance police-community relations, Diallo said.”
According to Diallo, this foundation will be an outlet that will allow the life and legacy of her son to endure.
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