Mothers Whose Sons Were Killed by Police Fight for Reform

One day as Kadiatou Diallo babysat her grandchildren, her daughter called with news that reignited her despair over the 1999 killing of her son, Amadou, by four white police officers in New York’s Bronx borough.

“She said, ‘Mom, something has happened,’ so I went and watched the video of George Floyd,” she said. “That was unbelievable. I can’t describe the feelings I felt.”

Ms. Diallo is part of a growing cadre of black families that are thrust into the spotlight after a family member is killed by police in a highly publicized case. In situations in which officers are acquitted or face few consequences for their roles in the deaths, the survivors are often called upon to speak publicly.

Some have become outspoken activists for social-justice causes, while others maintain low profiles. But Ms. Diallo said they have at least one thing in common: Their trauma is retriggered by graphically violent videos of new assaults or killings of black men and women by police.

“Behind all the headlines, after all the televisions are gone, people go back to their daily lives. For us, there is no going back,” she said. “We live with it, we breathe with it, we sleep with it and wake up with it. It will never, ever go away.”