Antonio Gwynn Jr. marched for hours in downtown Buffalo to protest the killing of George Floyd. He then went home to get some sleep and watch videos of the nationwide protests on YouTube.
The high school senior was shocked the next day, May 30, to see that his hometown’s peaceful streets had turned violent after he left. There was a confrontation between protesters and US marshals in front of the federal courthouse; windows were smashed at downtown businesses; protesters reported that they had been hit by police rubber bullets.
“I was sad to watch all of that. There was a huge mess downtown,” Gwynn said. “I thought, ‘I should go down there and clean it all up.’”
He had rented a small U-Haul truck several days earlier to move some belongings into a house he had rented from his aunt. At 2 a.m. on June 1, he tossed a broom, a dustpan, and two large boxes of garbage bags into the back of the truck and headed to Bailey Avenue, where much of the damage had occurred.
“I decided to start at one end and make my way down the street,” he said. “It was pretty quiet, and I thought maybe I could finish cleaning it up before people started going to work.”
Gwynn swept up broken glass, discarded protest signs, and litter, working through morning until noon. He cleaned about seventeen blocks, filling nearly two dozen trash bags, most of which he took home and set on his curb in time for his neighborhood’s garbage pickup.
A few hours later, he was stunned to discover that his good deed was all over Facebook.
“When I woke up and saw I was getting all these texts and tags thanking me, I couldn’t believe it,” Gwynn said. “It was the biggest surprise ever.”
Buffalo resident Nicole Hopkins had seen Gwynn hard at work early that morning, snapped a few pictures, then put them on her Facebook page. She told his story, then added: “I learned he is 18, a soon to be graduate of Hutch…
… Read More
—
Click Read More to read the rest of the story from our content source/partners – Denison Forum.