Tulsa Native Alfre Woodard says Terence Crutcher shooting brought her to tears

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Award-winning actress Alfre Woodard says she’s watched the most recent shootings of unarmed black men with sadness, but the shooting death of Terence Crutcher hit home.

“I’ve been horrified. I’ve sucked my teeth, I shake my head — but I actually broke down in tears after Crutcher in Tulsa,” says Woodard, who was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

“It reminded me of the country at the turn of the 20th century. Lynching knew no difference between us,” she told theGrio.

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Woodard, 63, says her celebrity-status and class haven’t necessarily protected her family from tense encounters with law enforcement. From an early age she taught her daughter and son to interact carefully with police, even introducing them by name.

She recalls how, when her son was around 16 years old, police stopped him mid-day while he was coming out of the family’s home.

“You don’t have to be a ‘gangsta.’ You don’t have to be somebody who feels threatening. You can be anybody,” she says. “To the point where you don’t know what to do. Everybody is feeling that.”

Woodard has been outspoken about activism and racial inequality, both on and off the screen. She plays Mariah Dillard, a fierce and community-focused Harlem politician, in the new Netflix series Marvel: Luke Cage, which premieres Friday.

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For Woodard, the role highlights the need to make a difference from whatever position you hold. She points to militarization of the police and an “us vs. them” mentality as part of the problem, but she sees two-way communication as part of the solution.

“We have to get back to people on the street, knowing the people who are there protecting the street, and them knowing us,” says Woodard. “It’s a stilted time that we’re in. But you have to make the effort.”

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