Words by: Selchia Cain | Photography by Rachel Collins | Audio by Mario Rossi | May 13, 2015<\/p>\n

It\u2019s cloudy and damp \u2014 not ideal weather for a protest. But there the teen stands on a busy Des Moines street corner. She wears her neon yellow jacket and perches proudly on her white stepping stool, bullhorn in hand. She\u2019s assembled nearly 100 people to stand in the rain with her, bearing signs and banners that read, in scribbled handwriting:<\/p>\n

#blacklivesmatter <\/i><\/p>\n

Expose and confront this racist system.<\/i><\/p>\n

Hands up, don\u2019t shoot.<\/i><\/p>\n\n

A decade earlier at that same intersection \u2014 coincidentally named Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway \u2014 Kaija Carter, now 18, had her first experience with racial profiling. She was in fourth grade, sitting in the backseat of her mother\u2019s car when a white police officer approached the car. Carter\u2019s mom gave her basic instructions, which, back then, felt life-saving: \u201cDon\u2019t move.\u201d As the officer approached the driver\u2019s side window, Carter\u2019s mother warned, \u201cWhatever happens, stay looking forward.\u201d Carter doesn\u2019t remember why her mother was pulled over. She only remembers feeling helplessly confused as a white man made her mother cry.<\/p>\n

Experiences like this eventually fueled Carter\u2019s commitment as an activist. They\u2019re the reason she\u2019s standing on this corner today.<\/p>\n

And Carter hasn\u2019t wasted any time. Just one year out of high school \u2014 an early graduate \u2014 she has organized more than seven demonstrations to unify Des Moines\u2019 voice with the national Black Lives Matter movement, a crusade to end police brutality, racial profiling, and unjust murders within the African American community. According to a study conducted by the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement<\/a>, one African-American male is killed every 28 hours by a police officer, security guard, or self-appointed vigilante. This statistic \u2014 along with the racial profiling that led to the slaying of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in 2012 \u2014 has now led thousands like Carter to spearhead collective action in their communities.<\/p>\n

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