Original subtitles

It was the summer of my sixth-grade year.

I was in the pool. I couldn't swim, but it was hot.

You know, I was trying to figure it out.

And these kids, they looked over at me, and they like, "Oh, we from nine-o."

I wasn't into none of that, wasn't thinking about anything,

and I'm still trying to paddle up against the wall.

And I guess they figure, "Okay, we can take advantage of her."

Kid kept coming back, kept splashing water on me.

One of them come up from behind, and he holds my head underneath the water.

I'm scratching and pulling him,

but he had me underneath the water.

And the next thing I know, I hear this one little boy screaming.

Even though I have water in my ears, I can hear him screaming.

I felt the pressure lift off of my neck, and she pulled me up out of the water.

She got clothes on still. She had a skirt on.

She literally dropped her bags when she saw what they were doing.

So she hopped the fence.

She got into the pool right where I was at.

"You better leave her alone!" One of them, he had a busted lip.

So she got me out of the water, and she said,

"Man, you lucky I was walking by, and I just happened to see that."

And her brother was with her, and she gets him to get her a towel.

Put her towel over me. She needed the towel, but she's, "No, I'll dry off."

And we go to the swings and sit down, so I can just catch my breath.

She's like, "You know what? You little. You need somebody to watch you.

We about the same age. I done seen you around here a few times.

What you doing tomorrow?"

"Coming back outside, but I'm not coming back to the pool."

She's like, "You don't gotta worry about it. I'll be with you."

Latasha's mother passed at 1985.

She was shot in the torso at a club.

My grandmother couldn't let them go in the system.

So my grandmother's main focus was just to raise her kids,

and that's exactly what she did.

She had to step in and step up to raise and do what she had to do,

especially for Christina, Vester, and Latasha.

I was the only child.

My mom was in Orange County, and they were out here.

I wanted to be with them 'cause they were having more fun.

Christina, Vester, and Latasha was my life,

my brother and sisters, so I ain't have nobody but them…

and her, and that's it.

Latasha was more responsible.

She used to do Christina's hair, walk Trell to the park or to the store,

so she stepped up and helped my grandmother out so much

with her brother and sister.

♪ Double double ditch ditch Double double ditch dat ♪

♪ Double ditch, double dat Double double ditch dat ♪

We got to get up so early.

We got to leave at a certain time to catch the Manchester bus

all the way out to Westchester,

where, after school,

buses be full, everybody in the back of the bus

talking smack.

And it made our ride a little bit quicker.

We used to get off on Figueroa,

and we stopped at Tam's Burger right there.

My grandmother would give us two to three dollars a day.

So we'd hold onto that two to three dollars a day

until after school.

Back in the day, they had the little… little jukeboxes

that sit on each table that you could play.

Our favorite song was "Stand by Me."

- ♪ Stand by me ♪ - That song right there, right?

We used to save our quarter for that song every day.

That was our song every day, and we'd get our fries.

And we'd walk down Figueroa all the way home, every day.

♪ No, I won’t be afraid ♪

♪ No, I won’t be afraid ♪

♪ Just as long as you stand ♪

♪ Stand by me… ♪

She wanted to be a lawyer, so that's what she was aiming for,

to get good grades,

to help her grandmother out as much as she can when she did make it.

She had all A's.

Popping out them A's.

You'd think, like, her mother passed six years prior,

where's her mind at?

'Course she talked about her mom,

but I think she blocked it out in so many ways

by keeping busy, by concentrating on school.

She just tried a little bit harder.

She just didn't want to end up a statistic.

She would talk about her mom. She missed her mom.

She missed her mom a lot,

and she just told me, "You know, I remember my mom would pick me up

and give me the… give me, like, the biggest hug.

That's what I remember most about her.

How she would hug me and the way she smelled."

Latasha would always talk about,

"When we got older, okay, here goes the plan.

We could still be lawyers. That could be our day job,

and we could own businesses,

because every time we go into a store, they either following us,

giving us dirty looks, disrespecting us.

Don't… don't you want to have something of your own?

We need, like, programs. We need something where the kids that's outside,

they can have something to do or somewhere to go, and we could start up tournaments

and basketball," 'cause she loved basketball.

I used to just go to the park sometimes, and I would watch her play.

And she would be the only girl on the court

playing basketball with these Hoovers, these big OGs.

And we'd play games with the kids that were younger than us sometimes,

and we would just have fun.

A lot of younger kids, they looked at her almost like the neighborhood big sister.

♪ I know my body's fragile Know it's made from clay ♪

♪ But if I have to go I pray my soul is still eternal ♪

♪ And my momma don't forget about me… ♪

I wanna say it was a Saturday.

My grandmother asked Trell to get the orange juice.

He didn't want to go, because we just woke up.

I was up, ready to go to the movies with Tasha,

but she was already gone.

My grandmother asked me to go get some orange juice.

Told her, "I don't wanna get no orange juice.

Tell Trell or Nookie to get the orange juice."

But I wish I had would have went.

I think Latasha passed in the morning hours,

'cause it was breakfast time,

but the detectives didn't get to our grandmother's house

until the afternoon.

I remember they came. I was dressed. Christina was at the house.

Trell was at the park,

so my grandmother told me to go run and get Trell.

He was in the gym playing basketball, and I remember walking up to him.

I was like, "Man, they killed her."

I remember pulling him, talking about, "Let's go! Something happened! Let's go!"

We both ran back home.

All hell broke loose then.

Word got around that a young Black girl

got shot over $1.79 of orange juice.

Everybody just broke down.

Everybody.

Went to the store. It was hot that day.

I got something to drink. I had left my bag on the side.

I said, "Okay, y'all ain't got to shoot me.

I'm just coming in to get this and get out,"

and the lady looked at me, she said, "Oh, you heard about what happened

to the little girl?" And I'm like, "Yeah."

Didn't know it was my friend yet. However, my parents knew.

I didn't know that it was her,

'cause I had saw her

probably the day before,

'cause she was excited they were going to the movies.

Go to the park.

I see Trell, and he's crying.

He's got tears down his face, and he's got Latasha's jacket on,

holding a candle. And I thought,

"She don't let him wear her gangster jacket. What's up with that?"

And he looked at me, looked up, but he was so hurt,

he kept doing what he was doing. So I didn't pay him no mind.

"I'm not gonna bother him. I'm just gonna go home."

Got home, in my own little world, and my dad comes in.

He said, "I know you heard about

the young lady that got shot over… over an orange juice."

He said, "Well, at this point, it's all over the news.

I can't hide that from you any longer, because this is something

where it's going to get out of hand, and it's gonna get out of hand

before anybody can get a real good hold on it."

So, as he's talking to me, it comes on TV.

I'm sorry.

And I saw it.

I never knew what terror was…

until I saw it.

And they kept playing that video…

over…

and over.

And I can only think to myself,

there was an incident… a few months prior where…

…I went into the store with my mom.

My mother had paid for some candy bars,

and she said, "Okay, I'm gonna go back outside.

I need you to go back in there and get your brother a candy bar."

And so I go back into the store.

I had the bag. The receipt was in the bag.

I get the candy, and I have my head down

'cause I'm… I'm counting my money.

There was… a hooker in the store,

and she's yelling, "Uh-uh! Uh-uh! Hold on, hold on, hold on.

Her momma outside. I'm gonna go get her momma."

I look up, and the lady got the gun cocked.

And I'm looking down this barrel.

My mom runs into the store,

and she said, "Uh-uh, she paid for this. Here's the receipt.

Here's the money for this candy bar.

Tybie, let's go.

You tell your friends do not come back to this store,

'cause this woman's gonna kill somebody." This was something that we got used to.

You get used to it,

and what people don't realize is

that wasn't the first time that lady tried to pull something

on one of the kids in that neighborhood.

And I remember telling Tasha a few days later,

I said, "Yeah, my mom said don't go back to that store.

You know, she pulled that gun out again,"

and Tasha was all, "You know, she always doing that, but she don't never…

She's never pulled the trigger.

So don't trip. She just do that to scare us."

So I didn't think about it.

But when I saw what I saw on TV…

I felt bad 'cause I was like… "I told her.

Why didn't she listen?"

I had that bad feeling like something…

This lady's gonna do something.

I just don't know what it is.

Every time we would go into that store, whether it's me,

whether it was her, whether it was Shinese,

whether it was any of the other kids in this neighborhood,

we always had to go in there and like, "Okay. Just be prepared.

You gonna get hit with something.

It's just what?

They're gonna call us monkeys this time, or they gonna follow us around the store,

or they gonna just put us out just because?"

But I saw that, and I just… I don't… I shut down.

I shut down for a long time.

Sometimes I think,

"How did I get this far, and she's not here?"

I know she'd be married by now.

She loved the fellas.

She probably would have three… two, three kids by now

and would be riding 'em,

especially if she had a daughter.

She'd be an awesome mother.

Had she been here…

yeah, I'd probably be a lawyer.

Actually, no, I would be a lawyer right now.

We would own some businesses.

We would have some activities for the kids that's in this neighborhood

to go somewhere, to do something.

"'Latasha's Shield.'

I am very reliable and trustworthy, honest.

I like that I am confident about myself.

I have a lot of talent, and I know whatever I set my mind on something,

I'm going to accomplish it.

I show people that I care by giving what I have to people

who actually need it.

I also show I care by showing respect to all adults

and ones my age and younger. I know I care.

What I want most in life is to fulfill my goal to be an attorney

and to also graduate from high school…

…and also to graduate from high school

with an almost perfect GPA to go to college.

The most important thing to me is my family is always protected

by a shield,

so that…

so they won't be…

harmed by dangerous, ruthless, uncaring people.

If I had one wish, it would be to get my mother back to me.

Three descriptive words my friends would say and probably give me

are caring, sharing, and very polite to others.

Latasha Harlins, February 6th, 1991."

What do you think about that poem, Shinese?

What I think about the poem? It's her.

It's everything that I just had said.

It's clarif--

it's clarification what I just…

had talked about.

You know, who she was.

That's what that poem is. Clarification.

And I haven't read that poem…

in such a long time that I even forgot that,

you know, it was valid. It was here.

I totally forgot that… …she wrote it.

People don't know that.

They just know that she was just a young Black girl

who was worth $1.79.

They don't know who she was as an individual.

They don't know.

I'm gonna always remember some of the conversations we had.

Some I'm gonna forget, but I'm trying my best to hold on to them.

I pushed so much out because it was painful

to see one of my best friends leave so soon.

She was a loving person.

I still appreciate her for being who she was back then.

She was aware of her color

and accepted it.

"We queens." "I ain't no queen. I got no damn crown on my head."

She's like, "No, stupid. We queens.

The only way we gonna get treated like we're queens

is if we carry ourselves that way.

There's nothing that I can't do once I put my mind to it.

My mother would tell me that, so I believe that."

And just, that was her drive.

That's what kept her going.

You're so strong.

Where did that strength come from?

And again, we're kids. We're children.

♪ I know everyone goes some day ♪

♪ I know my body's fragile Know it's made from clay ♪

♪ But if I have to go I pray my soul is still eternal ♪

♪ And my momma don't forget about me ♪

♪ I pray my momma don't forget about me ♪

♪ I pray my granny don't forget about me ♪

♪ I know everyone goes some day ♪

♪ I know my body's fragile… ♪