News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Two local activists want to purchase a Black Lives Matter billboard in Cookeville.
Julia Gruber, said she and Jena Lowndes organized a GoFundMe page.
“I mean, this is freedom of speech, and I do expect some people’s heads exploding over this, but that’s part of change,” Gruber said. “You can get angry, and I think anger is a good emotion. It propels change. Maybe people [will] start thinking about it.”
Gruber said three years ago she created a GoFundMe page to display a pro-immigration billboard off the interstate. Gruber said she thinks billboards are more effective in small towns.
As an Austrian immigrant, when Gruber moved to the United States, she noticed a significant difference in how history is taught in America from how it was taught in her home country. Gruber said since Austria was involved in the Holocaust, she did not learn about mass genocide until the 1980’s.
“I was always puzzled by how little Americans talk about their own racism, their own history,” Gruber said, “The history, it seems like it is taught through a pink lens.”
Gruber said she’s been inspired about the number of youth becoming active recently in civil rights movements. She said a high school student designed the billboard, and if there are enough donations, billboards could be placed in McMinneville and Sparta, too.
Due to the response to the protests in Cookeville, including a BLM protester being attached, Gruber said the Upper Cumberland needs this.
“The protests I’ve been to in Cookeville have never been this explosive,” Gruber said. “I mean there were some disagreements, but no one ever got hands wrapped around their throat, and they were not attacked. That’s a whole new level, and that shows me that yes, this is very much necessary to have this conversation, and it’s a hard conversation.”
The billboard will be off I-40.
