A road of remembrance
PRAIRIE VIEW — The last time Shavon Bland was in Prairie View, it was to watch her younger sister Sandra graduate from Prairie View A&M University.
She returned Friday with her mother and another sister to see a stretch of road named after Sandra Bland, whose death fueled national outrage about police brutality.
Shavon stood a few hundred feet from where 28-year-old Bland was pulled over in July for an improper lane change along University Drive. She was found dead in her Waller County jail cell three days later, a plastic trash bag around her neck. Her death was ruled a suicide.
Wearing a red shirt with her sister’s name, as well as the names of other women who died in police custody, she wiped away tears and listened to community and family members describe the new street sign as a partial victory, a way to carry on her sister’s name and spread awareness, but not the ultimate goal.
“It’s not about just Sandy,” Bland’s mother, Geneva ReedVeal, said to a crowd circled around her at the corner of Echols and what is now known as Sandra Bland Parkway. “It’s about other women and men who’ve died at the hands of officers who’ve sworn to protect them.”
“I love hearing my GPS say ‘make a left on Sandra Bland Parkway,’” said Aida Fall, a Prairie View alum, as the crowd cheered loudly.
The ceremony that drew a mix of close to 100 activists, college students and family members wearing buttons with Bland’s face, many dressed in #SandraBland T-shirts, almost didn’t happen. Frank D. Jackson, mayor of Prairie View, sent an automated “robo-call” to residents the night before announcing the event had been canceled. He said in a phone interview after the ceremony he didn’t think it was planned well enough and said he wasn’t privy to the program. He feared the ceremony could give off a “mixed message,” with some residents for and against the name change.
City Council originally voted in August to rename the 1-mile stretch of University Drive as Sandra Bland Parkway for three to five years or until a memorial park is established that is “acceptable” to Bland’s family. After getting pushback from residents, the council took it up again in September and voted 4 to 1 to change the name. .
A sign across Sandra Bland Parkway already designated a patch of grass as the future site of Sandra Bland Park.
Marie Herndon, the Position 3 councilwoman, said the cancelation wasn’t a good look for a city leader and said the two had discussed the event via email.
“This community has been through a lot, and the family has been through a lot,” Jackson said. “We need to make sure we do it right.”
As it came time to unveil the new signs, the crowd chanted a dozen times, “Say her name” followed by “Sandra Bland.”
Bland’s family smiled and posed for pictures. Her sister, Shante Needham, dressed in a shirt that had multiple pictures of Bland’s face, held a framed photo of Bland with the inscribed message, “Love you to the moon and back.”
“I wish she didn’t have to be a sign,” she said.