Following George’s Floyd murder, Dominique Liu-Sang spoke in front of Lincoln’s Hall of Justice on the injustices of Black and brown people the day following her arrest in May of 2020.
The cold concrete of the sidewalk digs into the knees of the protestors, their hands forcefully zip-tied behind their backs. Shrieking screams soar above the roar of the crowd. A woman is thrown to the ground. Suddenly, the once peaceful assembly devolves into violence.
Not 20 minutes earlier, a compromise appeared imminent: Lincoln police would not advance as long as the protesters remained peaceful. Now, law enforcement officers, decorated in riot gear and hoisting shields, push forward. In front of them, protesters hurl water bottles and dig in their heels.
Amid the chaos and screams, a young dark-skinned woman stands firmly planted between the two warring sides. She’s attempting to defend fellow protesters as long as possible before she too is pulled away and handcuffed. Dominique Liu-Sang, 22, is a student at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where she studies agricultural economics when not involved in the Black Lives Matter movement.
Tonight, though, she is just focused on making sure everyone gets through safely.
“That was a brutal day that started with a lot of power and ended with oppression,†Liu-Sang said. “I opened my eyes for a brief second and I saw the clouds of smoke from the rubber bullet guns going. I saw the tear gas canisters being flung and I just thought to myself, ‘It’s happening again.’â€
Liu-Sang had entered the movement as a medic, treating protesters’ wounds from tear gas and shock, but emerged as a leader, organizer and key player in Lincoln’s BLM crusade.
Earlier in the day:
The older members of the Black community host a peaceful rally. It comes to a close at 5 p.m., but the youth are hungry for more. They want to march more. They want to hear more. They want to do more. Even with an 8 p.m. curfew, they continue to protest. An American flag with a black X painted across it waves in the air as the procession moves from the Capitol to the Standing Bear statue on Centennial Mall, back down O Street, ending in front of the Hall of Justice.
Listening to others as they get up to speak, Liu-Sang feels inspired to mirror their actions and address the community. She calls for an end to protestor violence, for more community solidarity and an online presence to spread dialogue and ideas. When the events of the night continue to unfold, people begin turning to her. What do we do next? they ask. What do we do now?
As law enforcement officers advance on the gathering, Liu-Sang’s resolve strengthens.
“I couldn’t leave,†she said months later. “If the people out here that are protesting with me, alongside me, are going to go down today, then I'm going down with them because I'm the reason that they're here.â€
* * *
“Why are you so brown?â€
A little girl stares up at her with wide, curious eyes. An explanation is on the tip of Liu-Sang’s tongue when the child’s mother interrupts. You can’t ask that, the mother says, dragging her daughter away.
“That is the reason there’s such an issue,†Liu-Sang said. “Instead of explaining to their children that there are differences in people, they just tell them to turn away. And that’s ignorant.â€
Born in Washington, D.C., Liu-Sang arrived in Friend, a small town like so many in Nebraska, the last quarter of her junior year and graduated from high school in 2017. After her father lost his job, the family of nine moved to the rural community of 1,176 about 45 miles southwest of Lincoln. It proved to be a major change of pace. In D.C., Liu-Sang felt invisible, a needle in a haystack. In Friend, she felt like “a big black X on a sheet of white paper.â€
Often, she felt more like a curiosity, a stereotype, than a real person. People she’d never met seemed to know everything about her, but at the same time knew nothing. They assumed, because she was Black, she was great at basketball, “like Michael Jordan,†they said. Sometimes, students dropped the n-word, ignorant of the significance and weight it held. And they were curious about her hair, touching and probing it without asking.
“They weren't making fun of me,†Liu-Sang said. “They were just super curious about my existence, because I was the first Black girl to even be in Friend, to graduate from their school.â€
She remembers one day in particular, when someone asked if she liked fried chicken, grape soda and watermelon. She was surprised someone would assume that without knowing her, based only on what they had heard about Black people.
“People focus so much on skin color that they think all Black people are one. Black is not a monolith, not every Black person is the same,†Liu-Sang said.
Yet, she always persevered, maintaining her positive attitude. Her mother, Yolanda Fennell, recalled how she was “energetic and bubbly,†even when she broke her leg.
One day, Liu-Sang was playing hopscotch in her yard when she slipped, crashing hard to the ground.
Admitting only to a slight pain, she pulled herself up and continued helping around the house. Several days later, Fennell got a call from the school, urging her to pick up her daughter because “something was wrong with her leg.†One hospital visit later, the mother was in shock: Her daughter’s leg was broken.
“It was too much for her to move around on crutches,†Fennell said. “But she took to the wheelchair like it was a car. She was crazy in that wheelchair. … It didn’t stop her, it didn’t stop her at all.â€
Kaitlyn Kool, a Friend classmate, echoed similar sentiments.
“She never lets people get to her,†Kool said. “Despite whatever was thrown at her, she always just kept going.â€
Liu-Sang’s ability to make the best of situations followed her through time and across borders. After her first year at UNL, she went to work on a farm a friend was renting in Montana. The pair wanted to experience something different.
“I thought it would be a good chance for her to grow and expand as a person,†said the friend, Max Melvin, 24. “And now that we did it, I see maturity in her. I see her handle people differently, and she listens more.â€
One night during the Montana stint, desperate for social interaction, the two went into town. Not yet of drinking age, Liu-Sang stayed in the truck while Melvin drank inside one of two bars on the block. After a while, she went inside the other bar to use the restroom, dressed in black snowflake leggings and a Furbies T-shirt.
Not long after, two police cruisers pulled up to the truck where Liu-Sang napped. Melvin watched in shock through the bar’s front window.
“These people called the cops on Dom because she was Black and suspicious,†Melvin said. “They thought they were going to get robbed by someone in snowflake yoga pants and a children’s T-shirt.â€
After the police left, Melvin went to the truck, but Liu-Sang was gone. He found her at the other bar, talking to the people who had called the police on her, laughing and chatting up a storm.
“She turned a negative situation into a positive situation on her own,†Melvin said. “She turned everyone’s mood in there the opposite direction on her own. She turns a negative into a positive every single time.â€
Still, the mother noticed a change in her daughter.
“I don’t know exactly what happened in Montana, but I know it was enough to change the way she thought about people,†the mother said. “I think her innocence got taken away from her. I think she’s more angry now.â€
That anger, Liu-Sang said, inspired her to speak out and advocate for change, tired of watching the same injustices happen. Continued frustration not only fueled her participation in the BLM movement, but set her eyes upon a new goal: the Lincoln City Council.
“She won’t give up,†her close friend Dawn Peral said. “We’ll see her in women’s history books one day.â€
* * *
March 19, 2019:
Two years after Liu-Sang’s high school graduation, flames lick at the walls of a Friend home. A fellow graduate, Tiara Schwab, is among four who perish in the blaze. Liu-Sang stepped up immediately, a classmate recalled.
The classmate, Kool, remembered the sadness surrounding the deaths, but also Liu-Sang’s thoughtfulness. Although the class had largely lost touch, Liu-Sang was quick to create a group chat to discuss what to do for the families affected — as small as flowers, as large as fundraising.
“Across the board, she takes charge,†Kool said. “Without being asked to, Dominique steps up when things need to be done.â€
May 30, 2020:
Liu-Sang is at a friend’s house when a roommate rushes in. Lincoln’s EZ Go is on fire, he says. Knowing her medical knowledge from camping experiences would be useful, she rushes back home for supplies before arriving on the scene of the once-peaceful protest.
The majority of people had left the convenience store by the time she arrived. While law enforcement officers lobbed tear gas shells, protestors retaliated with fireworks. She remained until 8 a.m., washing tear gas from people’s eyes with milk, staying out of the conflict, keeping her car close by in case anything worse occurred.
A year later:
Things aren’t getting better, Liu-Sang said. They’re getting worse, becoming increasingly drastic as more people involve themselves in the racial conversation and feel inclined to speak up. While she faced mostly microaggressions and offhand comments during her school years, she feels it is worse for younger students now. Remarks once whispered behind her back are now said to her siblings’ faces as classmates increasingly toe the line between words and physical attacks.
Frustrated by people playing favorites, Liu-Sang now dreams of one day running for City Council, hoping to create change in today’s society, become a voice for those being ignored and have the power to push for equality. She has set her sights several years into the future, aiming to first build a connection with the community and solidify her political platform.
“As a youth, as someone who’s under 30, as a minority and as a student, I can bring a whole new perspective that no one on City Council will ever have,†she said. “It isn’t about power, or even winning. It was about awareness and making a change.â€
More than 150 years after America’s slaves were freed and Nebraska gave birth to its capital, a UNL journalism class posed the question: What’…
Photos and videos of protests in Lincoln over George Floyd's death
About the Series
More than 150 years after America’s slaves were freed and Nebraska gave birth to its capital, a UNL journalism class posed the question: What’s it like to be Black in Lincoln?
Students spent 15 weeks digging deep into the lives of a dozen residents representing a cross-section of Lincoln’s Black community: former basketball stars, BLM leaders, preachers, teachers, cops, convicts, businessmen, chefs, electricians and youth leaders. They discovered many had faced racial profiling, housing discrimination and police harassment, while others received ugly death threats, verbal abuse and hate-filled letters. The students also found that these Black residents think Lincoln’s racial climate has improved overall but still has a ways to go. And most believed that it will get there.
The semester-long depth-reporting project was overseen by Professors Joe Starita and Jennifer Sheppard and instructor Roger Holmes.
Other stories will be featured this summer in the Journal Star and at JournalStar.com.
Following George’s Floyd murder, Dominique Liu-Sang spoke in front of Lincoln’s Hall of Justice on the injustices of Black and brown people the day following her arrest in May of 2020.
Dominique Liu-Sang is arrested in May of 2020 outside Lincoln’s Hall of Justice for violating curfew amid protests following the murder of George Floyd.
Dominique Liu-Sang, an activist who led Black Lives Matter protests in the summer of 2020, said she "almost teared up" watching Kamala Harris being sworn in as the first woman, Black and Asian American vice president.