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The life of Tamir Rice, who was gunned down by police at just 12 years old in 2014, is being honored with a cultural center that will be a safe place for Black kids in Cleveland, OH. Rice’s mother, Samaria Rice, is pouring all of her energy into the Tamir Rice Afrocentric Cultural Center, reports The Root.
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The safe space will offer visual art, drama, and music activities, as well as civics classes.
“Nobody is talking about Tamir anymore in Cleveland,” said Rice. “And that’s sad.”
Rice has moved forward with the project thanks to the Tamir Rice Foundation. She also used a portion the wrongful death lawsuit’s $6 million settlement Rice filed against the city and the two officers involved (who still have not been prosecuted).
Rice said her son loved to draw cartoons and make pottery and now neighborhood children will be able to do the same in a center bearing his name.
It’s also important to Rice that the young people who come to the center are mentored on how to “dissect and participate in political systems.”
Rice said some people are displeased with the idea that the center is opening. And according to a the Cleveland Plain Dealer, someone superglued all of the locks on the 3,500-square-foot building. The facility was once the home of a newspaper operation.
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But Rice is moving ahead with her plan.
“I don’t pay no attention to them,” she said. “They can’t beat me for the simple fact that their child wasn’t killed by the state. I’m going to do it through the grace of God and I’m going to do it because the city of Cleveland gave me no choice but to do it as far as building my son’s legacy and keeping his legacy alive.”