Her family was arrested in Daniel Prude protest, but this 12-year-old activist kept demanding justice

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — On Oct. 1, Sarah Adams, 14, her mother, Mary Adams, and her father, Ricardo Adams, were all arrested outside the Rochester police union in New York.

They had gathered to attend and protest at a press conference organized by the lawyers of police officers suspended after Daniel Prude’s death became public.

Maya Adams, 12, attended the press conference as well, but was the only member of the family who wasn’t arrested.

“She had 12-year-old immunity, apparently,” Mary said. “They decided they were not going to arrest her because she was 12. I guess there’s a cutoff."

After her family had been arrested, Maya continued asking questions about the arrests and continued to demand justice for Daniel Prude.

Maya’s tenacity, her unwillingness to give up even when the rest of her family had been placed into squad cars, brought a feeling of pride to Ricardo, himself a seasoned activist.

“Maya was handling her business, confronting them,” he said. “I heard her really going at it.”

Maya said she wasn’t afraid when her family was arrested. She was angry.

Maya said she recalled thinking, "'Wow, you really just arrested the two people I came here with? Who’s going to take me home? Who’s going to be home when I get back?’"

“'You just took my sister, my mother, my father away, so what’s going to happen?'”

It was an understandable reaction, but then again, the Adamses have cultivated an extensive network in the organizing community. So no one was worried that Maya would be stranded or in danger, even though she was separated from her family.

Although Maya knew someone would get her home even if her entire family was arrested, she was nervous about potentially having to be home alone. 

Maya said that both Stanley Martin and Reenah Golden, two organizers with Free the People Roc, said that they would take her home. The only confusion became which one would end up taking care of Maya. 

Eventually, Sarah, Mary and Ricardo were all released. Sarah was detained and released without being charged, while appearance tickets were issued for her parents.

This was not the first political action Maya and her family have been involved in, and it would not be the last. The family members are fixtures at demonstrations in Rochester and across the region — and have been for decades. An older daughter, Erin Shoemaker, 28, works and studies locally.

Political activism for the family runs beyond protests, as both Mary and Ricardo have or are currently serving on the Rochester City School District's Board of Education. Sarah and Maya are already taking up the mantle. 

In a protest scene that sometimes falls along generational divides, this family is bridging the gap and forging a path of activism as a way of life.

Protesting and protecting

Maya, Ricardo and Mary gathered at a table in the backyard of the family’s home on a chilly October morning, about a week after the arrests. Birds could be heard as they flew overhead, and the family was jovial, making jokes and laughing lovingly at, and with, each other as they prepared to be interviewed.

A freshman in high school, Sarah Adams has quickly become one of the youngest faces of Rochester’s protest movement. In the last year, she has been interviewed or photographed by local publications and TV stations. And she has been a fixture at Free the People Roc’s protests that arose after the murder of Daniel Prude.

It might be easy to forget she's 14. But her mother stays aware of the demands of the movement and the need to protect her daughters.

“I feel really proud of you guys,” Mary said, gesturing to her daughters. “Nobody who’s actually fair or knowledgeable or smart could possibly look at the body of work that you all are already establishing and criticize you for being anything other than having full integrity and intelligence.”

Despite this, Mary has concerns about the future: What will happen to her daughters’ chutzpah and determination if, years and decades later, Black men and women continue to face police brutality? How will they be able to maintain their spirits in the face of continued injustice? Will they burn out?

“What are you going to do to make sure that your spirit stays strong and that your mental health stays strong? I do worry about that because you’re so strong, so early,” Mary said.

Still, both Mary and Ricardo are glad that their daughters have not only decided to join the movement, but are also becoming leaders in it.

“For me, it’s how you spell relief,” Ricardo said. “I feel an obligation to fight for what’s right, (but) I’m at the age now I need to fall back. So I feel they’ve taken the torch. Somebody from my family is representing — representing good, too, and I don’t even have to be there with them. They’re little leaders now.”

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The American Dream?

Ricardo and Mary met in 2004 when they were working with Poor People United, which grew out of Rochester's St. Joseph's House of Hospitality. The organization was led by homeless people and supported by allies, according to Mary.

Prior to their meeting, both worked as activists and organizers.

It’s personal for Ricardo, 65, who said he has spent his entire life fighting for better conditions. Ricardo’s early years of homelessness and abandonment shaped him, motivating him to fight for people.

As a child, he saw the effects of racism and class inequality around him, and he knew it was neither fair nor right.

“It's been a constant struggle on who I am. It's affected me even to today,” Ricardo said.

Like many Black men and women, Ricardo is aware that because of his race, his life might end over a misunderstanding. He said that when he’s traveling at night and pulls up to a service station, he makes sure that he is holding his wallet in his hand before he exits his vehicle so that shop owners or security guards inside will know that he is there to shop.

“I’m saying, 'Calm down — I don’t want to die tonight,'” he said. “It’s ridiculous that I have to go through all of that as a person. I can never relax. I see where too many of us have died for taking stuff for granted, so it’s really affected my life so, so much, and it does so today. I don’t want to die too fast on these girls.”

Ricardo’s experiences have informed his politics. He is an advocate for single-parent health care. He's also against gentrification, which he views as a form of ethnic cleansing, and the school-to-prison pipeline.

Mary like Ricardo, has been shaped by an understanding of inequality.

“I see the contradictions between the rhetoric, the so-called American Dream, and the reality of what people go through, and I’ve been pissed off about the lies,” Mary said.

“Seeing the inconsistencies in how some people live so well and some people struggle — the people who work the hardest often are suffering the most. It’s a sense of fairness and recognition of the contradictions and not being able to rest. I’ve got a good life, and it’s not fair that people struggle in this rich society.”

Forged in activism

Outsiders may think that Sarah and Maya were pushed into activism by their parents, but it's more like they came along for the ride and liked what they saw. 

The girls have been attending protests from a young age. Early on, Mary, Ricardo and the girls would travel together to events across the country. In doing so, they’ve cultivated a wide community and network.

“We really couldn’t afford to leave our kids with somebody all the time, so they ended up having to go with us way more than they wanted to go, I’m sure. Instead of it being traumatizing to them, they kind of took hold to it,” Ricardo said.

There’s a photo of Maya in a stroller and Sarah holding her dad’s hand as they walked in front of a line of riot police at a G20 meeting in Pittsburgh. It was at this protest that the family was tear-gassed for the first time. Despite the police’s use of weapons, the protesters made for a vibrant, welcoming community. Ricardo said that protesters stayed in a campsite.

A journalist interviewed Sarah and Maya and asked if they needed anything. Sarah said that she was thirsty. After the interview aired, community members sent over 100 cases of bottled water, Ricardo said.

On the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington, Ricardo and Sarah went to a protest at the School of the Arts. Sarah was playing with the bike rack and broke her arm. Moses Robinson, who has worked for the Rochester Police Department since December 1985, was there on security and offered to drive Sarah to the hospital.

Sarah was in fifth grade when President Trump was elected. His election angered her, and she wanted to do something about it. She told her mother how she felt and the two of them went to Washington, D.C., to protest the inauguration.

When Maya was in fourth grade, she went to the Black Women’s March in Washington with the Flower City Noire Collective. The trip, which lasted three days, was her first fully voluntary political action.

'Change, not reform'

The family's politics are simple. Mary said that they are unlikely to specifically identify with any political group, but they have a commitment to people over profit.

“In order to get to a better place, there has to be really revolutionary change, for sure, not reforms,” she said. “Justice is more important than any kind of oppressive order — anti-Black racism is such a huge part of that oppressive order that it has to be completely dismantled.”

Ricardo referenced the interaction with Officer Robinson, the one who offered to help Sarah when she hurt her arm. Ricardo said that he has a mutual respect for Robinson, but also recognized that, "He's part of an organization that is going to require more than him to change it."

Ricardo compared this to his own position on Rochester's local school board. "It’s going to take way more than me to change the racism," he said.

Follow Adria R. Walker on Twitter at @adriawalkr.