Description

From June 12 2020 until the passage of the state law making the occupation a felony two months later peaceful protesters set up camp at Nashvilles Legislative Plaza and renamed it for Ida B Wells

Central to the occupation was Justin Jones a student of Fisk University and Vanderbilt Divinity School whose place at the forefront of the protests brought him and the occupation to the attention of the Tennessee state troopers state and US senators and Governor Bill Lee The result was two months of solidarity in the face of rampant abuse community in the face of statesponsored terror and standoff after standoff at the doorsteps of the peoples house with those who claimed to represent them In this his first book Jones describes those two revolutionary months of nonviolent resistance against apolice state thatsought to dehumanize its citizens

The Peoples Plaza is a rumination on the abuse of power and a vision of a more just equitable antiracist Nashvillea vision that kept Jones and those with him posted on the plaza through intense heat unprovoked arrests vandalism theft and violent suppression It is a firstperson account of hope a statement of intent and a blueprint for nonviolent resistance in the American South and elsewhere