by Dave Cullen
Terrell Bosley was shot outside the Lights of Zion Church on Halsted and 116th on Chicago’s Far South Side.
The “freedom riders” added at the last minute were literally last-minute, or close. When the barbeque ended, I stayed to write down my impressions, so I was one of the last to leave. I pitched in with the cleanup and found a manila folder, which looked like something someone would need. So I looked inside, and it was the release forms for one of the Chicago kids to join the bus tour. I had just interviewed him at the barbeque, and we were all headed to the town hall in suburban Naperville, so I texted him that I would bring it to him there. He had signed up to join the tour in the final hour. And he was not the only one.
3
All quotes and depictions from Naperville come from my reporting there. Several of the organizers from Downers Grove North High were also at the Peace March, and I chatted with them briefly on Friday, but we were interrupted and didn’t talk long. (There was a lot going on.) I had done some basic research on their car wash the week before, and followed it on Facebook, because I was planning to attend. (There were some protests planned, and they also got so many RSVPs that they moved to a bigger location.) I ended up not going, because the barbeque was too interesting to leave. I talked to a whole lot of local activists there, and also people from the neighborhood who had come to check them out. (And the food was delicious!)
The quotes from Jackie reflecting on Naperville are from a phone interview I did with her Monday morning (two days later). When we settled on a time for the interview by text, she gave it to me in EDT. (By the way, Jackie is very precise, and includes time zones to avoid confusion.) I asked if she really meant EDT, because she was going to be in Missouri, and that was central time. No, she meant eastern. Jackie, Emma, and one of the other team members (sorry, I lost track of the third) were flying to Atlanta for a big event, and then right back to rejoin the tour. They were three days into a marathon bus tour and already tacking on extra travel? But I wasn’t too surprised, because they had been behaving that way all spring. Still.
4
The July TargetSmart report is titled “Analysis: After Parkland Shooting, Youth Voter Registration Surges.” The Miami Herald article cited is “Youth Voter Registration Went Up 41 Percent . . .”
5
I attended Road to Change tour dates in and around Chicago, Denver, and New York City, checked in with the kids regularly by phone and text, and monitored the tour by social media postings daily. (When something interesting happened, I would follow up by phone or text.)
All the quotes and depictions in this section come from my reporting.
6
All the quotes and depictions in this section come from my reporting, with one exception: I consulted local news accounts in Salt Lake City for background on the theater owner canceling the venue there. I did not quote any of those.
I had one of my researchers track down one of the Second Amendment protesters in Texas to pre-interview him to get his perspective. I normally conduct all my own interviews, but I was on a tight deadline for a Vanity Fair piece for which I was considering using it. I didn’t, so I never interviewed him personally, but he was forthcoming with my researcher, and it was informative to get his perspective.
I have followed Tom Mauser’s efforts since 1999 but had not checked in for a while. It was stirring to see how he had really come into his own, and how the MFOL kids looked up to him as a sort of elder statesman in their cause. Because he was. He was a pioneer.
20. Homeward Bound
1
When I saw the kids at the two Colorado stops midtour, I had the sense that some of the kids were nearing the ends of their ropes. Then and in New York City, some of them made offhand comments, but no one wanted to name names, as they were all still working it out. But it was clearly coming, and it seemed natural.
The Joni Mitchell song is “Coyote.” I recommend the live recording on The Band’s farewell concert album, The Last Waltz—and Martin Scorsese’s film of the same name.
2
Everything in this section is from my reporting, except the paragraph on David, where I got most of the details and the quoted phrase from Lisa Miller’s New York magazine profile on him, “Parkland Activist David Hogg . . .”
3
This section is from my reporting.
4
Cameron announced his departure on the Fox News Radio show Benson and Harf on September 19. A transcript of the key passages is online on the Fox News Radio website.
5
This section is from my reporting.
21. The Third Rail
1
The kids briefed me about the Mayors for Our Lives initiative in advance, and I watched the Morning Joe interview. I happened to see Katy Tur’s comment while watching her show.
All quotes from the kids in this chapter are from my interviews, except as noted.
Ariana Grande’s push for voter registration was reported in Billboard: “March for Our Lives Website Crashes . . .”
Quotes from Emma in this chapter come from her interviews with Diverse magazine, The Alligator, and Variety.
3
I was not at the Hurricane Grill & Wings gathering. I relied on accounts from the kids, augmented by news accounts. Jackie’s quote about shaking with anger and vowing to keep fighting comes from “Pain for Parkland Students . . .” (The Guardian). Her other quotes come from my interviews.
4
All quotes from Professor Robert J. Spitzer in this chapter come from my interview with him. His cogent op-ed about the results of the midterms in the November 12 New York Times also provided context.
Epilogue
1
All quotes and updates from the kids in this chapter come from interviews and texts with them, up through early December.
4
I was a huge Springsteen fan in my youth. In high school, I bought the first four albums of my life at one time, and Darkness on the Edge of Town was one of them. I had never seen Bruce in concert, though. His Broadway show played for over a year just a few blocks from my apartment in Manhattan’s Hell’s Kitchen, but I couldn’t afford tickets, so I didn’t enter the lottery. But June 21, less than a week after the Peace March, I was invited to attend a performance less than an hour before the show. I always carry a pen and paper. I try to keep one letter-size sheet folded into quarters in my back pocket, but art often inspires me, so I packed two. I’m so glad I did. When Bruce mentioned the March for Our Lives kids, I was stunned. I immediately pulled the paper out and jotted down everything I could. I’m pretty sure I got the quotes right, but the way they appear in this book is from my notes, in the dark, as I heard them. I wrote a first stab at this section in the dark, during the final minutes of the show. I filled both sides of both papers, though I was writing very large, praying that I was not overwriting and that it would be comprehensible. It was. I walked straight home and fashioned the first draft of this section over the next hour, and refined it over the next several days.
I figured word must have gotten to the kids, but I texted Matt and Jackie (separately) that night just in case, and they were shocked and awed. And honored.
I said Bruce “has yet to meet” Jackie, because it’s true; they haven’t met, as of the final edits in December 2018. But I have a feeling that will prove temporary.
About the Author
Dave Cullen is the author of the New York Times bestseller Columbine. Cullen has also written for the New York Times, BuzzFeed, Vanity Fair, Politico Magazine, the London Times, the New Republic, Newsweek, the Guardian, the Washington Post, the Daily Beast, Slate, Salon, The Millions, Lapham’s Quarterly, and NPR’s On the Media.
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Also by Dave Cullen
Columbine
Copyright
parkland. Copyright © 2019 by Dave Cullen. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the re
quired fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
Grateful acknowledgment is made for permission to reprint from Spring Awakening, book and lyrics by Steven Sater, copyright © 2007. Published by Theatre Communications Group, Inc. Used by permission.
Portions of several chapters were previously published, in a different form, in Vanity Fair.
first edition
Cover based on a design by Henry Sene Yee
Cover photograph by Andres Kudacki
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data has been applied for.
Digital Edition FEBRUARY 2019 ISBN: 978-0-06-288297-4
Print ISBN: 978-0-06-288294-3
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