On April 13th Ralph Yarl, a 16-year-old black teen, was shot twice on the front porch of 84-year-old white homeowner Andrew Lester in Kansas City, Missouri. Yarl was shot in the head and the arm after accidentally ringing the wrong doorbell. He was trying to pick up his younger brothers from a friend’s house when he mistakenly went to the wrong address.
Wounded, Yarl scrambled to find help by knocking on the doors of houses nearby. He was then taken to the hospital with life-threatening injuries. Despite being shot in the head doctors predict that Yarl will make a full physical recovery.
Lester was not arrested at the crime scene but turned himself in to the Clay County Detention Center where he was charged with first degree assault and armed criminal action on Tuesday, April 18th, four days after the shooting. Lester pled not guilty of assault and claimed that he feared for his life due to the boy’s stature. Yarl stands at 5’8’’ tall and weighs 140 pounds. Lester was released on a $200,000 bond that same afternoon. Yarl’s story has made national headlines and evoked feelings of injustice and outrage among the black community.
For Langston University seniors from Kansas City, Missouri, Yarl’s story hits especially close to home. Nia Daniels and Paris Rain both graduated from Staley High School, the same school that Yarl attended. After hearing the news, these students wrestled with feelings of anger, fear, sadness and frustration. Paris Rain is a broadcast journalism major who graduated from Staley high school in 2019. She expressed that she was incredibly saddened by what happened to Yarl.
“Racial injustice is happening everywhere, but when it’s ten minutes away from your home and happened to a kid that went to your same high school it puts a different kind of ache in your heart,” Rain said.
Nia Daniels is a broadcast journalism major who graduated from Staley high school in 2020. Daniels feels fear knowing that racism and senseless gun violence are happening so close to where she lives.
“The school that Ralph and I both went to is only one minute away from where I live…when I first heard about it, I was scared to go back home because this could have happened to my brothers or this could have happened to me,” Daniels said.
Staley high school held a unity walk in Yarl’s honor where over 1,500 students participated to show their support. Quinton Lucas, the mayor of Kansas City, also spoke about how he feels Yarl was shot in the head because he is black. Even though many people in the community have decided to take a stand, Daniels believes that since her neighborhood and high school are predominantly white, people have shied away from discussions about racial injustice in the past. Rain shared that in her experience at Staley high school there were hardly any black students.
“Going to Staley you’re the minority if you’re black. I can count on my hand how many people were black in my entire class of 2019,” Rain said.
Rain believes that coming to Langston University has helped herself as well as Daniels to embrace their blackness. “Staley was a steppingstone for us…when we got to an HBCU it allowed us to be ourselves unapologetically without holding back,” Rain said.
Daniels believes that more people at her high school and within her community are speaking out because they have now been personally affected. “It had to hit home for a lot of those students for them to actually acknowledge that disparities and injustice toward black people actually exist and can’t be denied because it happened to their classmate,” Daniels said.
Both Rain and Daniels felt that what happened to Yarl was malicious and uncalled for. They feel as though Yarl was almost killed because of the color of his skin, and they do not agree with Lester being released on bond.
“People call it the justice system; I don’t do that. I call it the legal system because there is no justice about it,” Daniels said. Daniels reflected on the fact that Yarl was shot for simply ringing the wrong doorbell and it caused her to question what mundane actions can cost black people their lives. “It doesn’t seem like anything is safe honestly,” Daniels said.
Rain felt that Yarl’s story motivated her to adopt an increased responsibility to speak up about violence against African Americans. “To see something like this happen ten minutes away from home…I have to put my foot down, now it is time for me to be the next person to say something,” Rain said.
Daniels decided that she wanted to do something with her fellow Staley alumni at Langston University to show their support. She, along with Elijah Weaver, who also graduated from Staley high school, decided to set up a table in the Student Success Center and dedicate their time to educate Langston University students about what happened to Yarl as well as make cards for him and his family.
“We had to do something, we can’t let this year end without doing the bare minimum…we had to let him know that black students at the only HBCU in Oklahoma are standing with him,” Daniels said.
Many students stopped by the table to sign the cards and urged Daniels to continue setting up the table every day this week. “It was honestly really encouraging for them to want to come up, sign the cards and read about what’s happening because we are the future especially when it comes to social justice,” Daniels said.
Daniels saw sincerity from the students that participated in the card signing and she felt that what happened to Yarl sparked empathy in Langston University students. Rain expressed gratitude for the opportunity to support a cause she believes in alongside Daniels and Weaver. “You never quite understand what it means to be an alumni of a school until you have to stand up for something and that’s what this time did, it brought all three of us together,” Rain said.
Midori Williams
Staff Writer
Midori Williams is a junior broadcast journalism major.
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The Gazette serves as the student voice of Langston University. It is produced within the Department of Communication as a teaching tool and local news source for the campus community. The views and opinions expressed within are those of the writers whose names appear with the articles and do not necessarily represent the views of Langston University.
