Almost too small to reach the microphone, Zianna Oliphant stepped to the podium at the Charlotte City Council meeting on Monday (9/27/16).
The 9-year-old Charlotte girl whose tearful testimony on racism and policing Monday captured attention around the world said her decision to address City Council was a last-minute one.
“I was a little nervous, so I decided to just go up there and tell them how I feel,” Zianna Oliphant, told NBC News Tuesday.
“I was just feeling like what the police are doing to us, just because of our skin, is not right,” the fourth-grader said.
Zianna and her brother, Marquis, both spoke at a City Council meeting in which members of the city’s black community called for changes after police fatally shot an African-American man, Keith Lamont Scott, last week.
Some at the council meeting called on Charlotte Police Chief Kerry Putney and the city’s mayor to resign over their handling of Scott’s death.
“It’s not hate. We don’t hate the police,” Oliphant said. “We hate how we are treated by the police, how we are targeted by the police.”
