Kwame Osei Jr. (back row, second from the left) poses with fellow protesters at Crockett Row.
A new group has emerged from among the protesters calling for reform after the death of George Floyd — one that's gained over 4,200 members on Facebook in less than a month.
The group — Enough is Enough Fort Worth! — has led protests in popular areas of town like West Seventh Street and Sundance Square, sometimes taking their march into restaurants and stores. They’ve been met with mixed responses. Some patrons applauded them in support, while one diner threw water on a protester and called her a racial slur.
Co-founder Kwame Osei Jr. says it’s their mission to unite response efforts in Fort Worth to strengthen the fight for justice. We spoke with him about how EIEFW! originated and what they’re doing to bring about change.
FW MAG: Can you tell us how EIEFW! got started?
KO: Another individual named Michael Campbell [and I] initially went to the protest in downtown Fort Worth after George Floyd was killed. We felt that there was a lack of communicating events within the community. We felt the need to create a group that consists of many other groups within Fort Worth as the means of communication. [Some of the groups that make up EIEFW! are Black Love Fort Worth, Black Lives Matter Fort Worth, FW4GEORGEFLOYD, and Fort Worth United for Justice.]
FW MAG: So you serve as an information provider among all the other groups that are working together right now?
KO: Yes. They all have different meetings that I attend. I basically serve as a cross-communicator between all of these groups.
FW MAG: Then this is a fairly new group? How many people have joined your efforts?
KO: Absolutely. In a matter of two weeks, we are over 4,200 hundred members.
FW MAG: In addition to communication and going to meetings, you guys are also marching. Can you tell us when that started and what those look like?
KO: The marches are daily and started 15 days ago. The first march was peaceful. Our voices were heard. I think the marches have been looking good. [Sunday] was the first time doing a silent march, and I think that was powerful as well.
FW MAG: Typically, when you march, where do you start out? Is it always the same route or does that change?
KO: We've marched in two different areas. We started marching on Seventh Street and then the courthouse in downtown Fort Worth throughout Sundance Square. We started meeting at the Target by Montgomery Plaza and then started marching the Seventh Street area. We did that three or four times. Then this past Thursday, we took it to the courthouse and focused on downtown Fort Worth.
FW MAG: When you're marching, you’re stopping at businesses on your route and either protesting in front of a business or going inside like at Target or Texas de Brazil. Can you tell us more about that?
KO: The reason for that approach was we felt as though our reason for being out there was falling on deaf ears, that people were just going on their day-to-day ways. So we decided to march into those businesses to bring more awareness. We try to make sure that no one breaks anything, no fights occur, until the one incident at Texas de Brazil.
FW MAG: Can you tell us more about what happened there?
KO: It was Thursday night. One of our protesters was in [Texas de Brazil] singing the chants as the rest of the group was. A husband and wife were having dinner there. The husband threw water on [the protester] and called her a “n-----.” One of our protesters went ahead and grabbed [the other protester] and had her vacate so that she wouldn't physically hurt that gentleman. Once the police arrived, we told the police of the incident. The police told us that they were not there to file any reports. So they wouldn't file a report, they wouldn't allow our protester to press charges on that man. That is an assault. The police officer went to say that if he would have seen that happen, then he would have been able to file an assault charge.
No official statement was taken from the protester who got assaulted, no file, no report number was provided to us, and we vacated the restaurant.
FW MAG: Are you targeting specific businesses or going anywhere to get people’s attention?
KO: We're going anywhere that there's people. A lot of business owners make donations to officials and our mayor. We know that if we can minimize the amount of money that the business makes, that will then in turn minimize the amount of money that they are able to donate to campaigns, which will then minimize the marketing for certain candidates. It reduces the amount of billboards promoting certain candidates. So that was our intention.
Now, there have been situations where the head chef or manager will come out and ask us what is our mission about, what are we about. Once we have a conversation that gives them a better understanding that we're not just here trying to cripple or disrupt their business, we're simply trying to disrupt peace because we have not received justice.
FW MAG: Are you researching what businesses make donations to certain politicians? Is there a strategy to picking the businesses?
KO: I do have a team member that does that. There is a method to the madness.
FW MAG: What is your goal when protesting? What demands are you wanting met?
KO: We're trying to dispel what "defund the police" means. Instantly, a lot of people are turned off when they hear the term. What it actually means is reallocation of the funds to different programs because we're asking our police officers to do too much. If we had different programs in place and we could reallocate funds, not only will it increase the relationship between citizens and police officers; it will also help a lot of our citizens in a more positive way. So right now, there's [about] $268 million allocated for Fort Worth police. They receive more money than any other department within the city. So if we can reallocate these funds to other services, mental health issues and things of that nature, then I think that can reduce the amount of stress on the police force and will strengthen our bond between us and them.
FW MAG: Have you had conversations with any government official, like Mayor Betsy Price's office, in regards to these demands?
KO: Yes, that is in the works. We had a preliminary meeting on Saturday with Mayor Price and the chief of police and some others.
FW MAG: Some of these people working at restaurants are just employees, many of whom are people of color, that have been off of work for several months due to COVID. They're just trying to make money to feed their families. Is it an acceptable trade-off to make them possibly lose money so that your protest can be heard?
KO: We are being killed at an alarming rate. If we're not able to survive, then how will we be able to go to work to make such needs to feed our families? We all have jobs. We all work. We all have families. People against the protest think we're just young entitled pricks with no job and nothing else to do. But that's the furthest from the truth. We're not there to impede on a person's career or how they feed their families. However, we do want to bring awareness to employees and customers. If that means that, for only 20 to 30 minutes, you're made to feel uncomfortable by our methods, that's a greater trade-off than having no life.
FW MAG: Are you having a conversation ahead of time with management and getting permission to come into these restaurants?
KO: When we were doing the practice that we will no longer do moving forward, no, we were not getting permission. However, we do understand that it is private property. So when they asked us to leave, we had to leave.
From here on out, we won't be going into any restaurants unless we're invited. We do have restaurants that are inviting us to come in.
FW MAG: So it's important that you guys are doing everything lawfully?
KO: Absolutely. My goal is to make sure that we keep everyone safe and prevent the amount of arrests that can happen during this fight. As a protester, I know that counter-protesters have their rights as well. I want to make sure we have a security team in place to make sure we don't go back and forth with counter-protesters. They have their rights to speak against our methods. We have to respect their freedom and liberties as we want them to respect ours.
FW MAG: With having more of a confrontational approach by going into businesses and with the possibility of patrons being drunk or even armed, what safety measures are you taking to keep your protesters safe?
KO: We make sure that our families with children stay in the middle. Our security team knows that if a confrontation is arising, to pull children and families back. We also encourage those who have little ones to stay at home base. So, for example, if we're meeting at the courthouse, we'll ask for small children and parents to protest at the courthouse with their signs so we can ensure their safety.
Because there's no way to predict what's going to happen, a lot of our security members are licensed to carry as well. But we hope it never comes to that. But if we feel a confrontation arising, we will always retreat our protesters back and away from that confrontation.
A lot goes into it. We have to go over routes. We have to do a scouting report. There's been one night where we noticed a gentleman on top of the building. So we had to point that out to the police. We're out there hours ahead of time just scouting to make sure that there aren't any potential threats. As a man that's married with four kids, I want to come home every day at the end of the night. I want to make sure that everyone else has the same opportunity as well.
FW MAG: Do you have any background with community organization prior to this?
KO: No, I do not. But this is turning into a second job. There's meeting after meeting, trying to plan and implement things for the betterment of our movement. This is not something that is temporary. This is long term. So that's why I needed the help of other groups so that we can all unite under the umbrella of Enough is Enough.
FW MAG: What good have you seen come from your work? Have you seen progress already?
KO: Yes. The very first progress we saw was the removal of the curfew, when we had to be indoors by 8 p.m., which is unconstitutional. Then after that, seeing the arrests from protesters on Seventh Street charges were dropped. Now we're working on getting those arrest records expunged. We look forward to having more meetings with our major so we can continue to go forward.
FW MAG: Does Mayor Price seem to be receptive to talking?
KO: That's yet to be determined. I haven't had enough encounters with her to determine if she truly wants to hear us out with change or if this is a publicity stunt.
FW MAG: You encounter police on a regular and nightly basis. What is their stance? Have they been cooperative with your protests?
KO: When we did the protesting on Seventh Street, the police were supportive. We had an issue with police last Thursday; they started acting in a very intimidating manner in regards to how they would try to go in different formations with their bicycles, how they would box us in with bicycles on different streets and around the group. It was as if the police were looking for a reason to call in the SRT unit to cause bodily harm and injury to protesters. It's been said that we're out here being bullies, but I feel as though the police are the true bullies in this matter.
FW MAG: Early on, they were coming out in riot gear, but for your marches, are they in normal uniforms?
KO: Well, they still have their officers in full-fledged riot gear, but they just have them sitting in vans. My security team — we always see them. So they're there. They're ready. They're wanting something to happen. But that is not our intention. We have not broken one piece of glass. We're not there to cause a riot.
FW MAG: Do your children come out to protest with you?
KO: They do. Sometimes they just want to be a kid and go play basketball or whatnot so I don't force them, but they've been there a few nights.
FW MAG: You're out marching every night. Do you see an end in sight?
KO: I don't see that happening in the near future because our goal is to get some changes implemented at the city level. Then it's going down to Austin to try to get those admitted at the state level. Then, after that, we have to focus on the federal level.
For a long time, black people have just been asking for civility. We were just asking for civil rights, not even equal rights. We are a long way away from being equal. So I don't see this stopping until that happens.
If it requires marching, we'll do that. If it requires assembling to communicate our message and provide further information, we will do that. If it requires going to a church or any community outreach center and speaking there, we'll do that. It doesn't necessarily have to be marching. I don't want to say that, yes or no, we're going to continue or stop marching.
FW MAG: Is there anything else that is important for people to know about EIEFW!?
KO: What I want people to know about Enough is Enough is that we are not thugs. We are a lot of different people from all different walks of life fighting for the same thing. That thing that we're fighting for is making our city better. Ways that we want to make our city better is by forming a community police oversight board, an office of independent police monitoring. We want to remove Fort Worth police officers from the Fort Worth Independent School District. We want to create a crisis diversion center for the purpose of being used instead of arresting in regards to mental health crises, making changes to our police academy and training.
We also want to touch on the basis of education with the school-to-prison pipeline, the curriculum of history and science in our schools. If we change the narrative that's being passed down to our students at a much earlier age, they will be more receptive and have another understanding of all that African-Americans and Latinos have contributed to our country. So if we could do those things, that's gonna be a great start for us to move forward. And if you're interested in joining that fight, Enough is Enough Fort Worth! is the group for you.
This Q&A has been edited for length and clarity. A previous version of this article incorrectly listed certain organizations that are not directly affiliated with Enough is Enough.
