White woman calls police on Black woman canvassing for election in wealthy neighborhood
Dr. Amanda Kemp had the police called on her as she canvassed in a wealthy neighborhood.
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Kemp, a scholar at Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, was stumping for Democratic congressional candidate Jess King, but couldn’t even do that in peace before getting approached by a woman who told her, “You don’t belong here.”
Kemp said she was in the gated Bent Creek community in Manheim Township to also visit a voter. Once they entered the community they knocked on doors to canvas and that’s when Bent Creek resident Elizabeth “Duffy” Johnson called 911.
Kemp was with her husband, who is white, and decided to leave before the police showed up. Kemo took to Facebook to express her outrage using the hashtag #Canvassingwhileblack.
“The unequal power we had in that situation was very apparent to me,” said Kemp.
“Canvassing while black refers to all that anxiety I bring to an interaction, combined with having to face people’s expressed hostility and outright rage, and her saying, ‘You don’t belong here.’”
Johnson might have had more than one agenda since she is also a member of the Republican Committee of Lancaster County. Johnson has been campaigning for GOP incumbent Lloyd Smucker who is being challenged by Jess King, the opponent Kemp was canvassing for before having the cops called on her.
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Johnson’s attorney Edwin Pfursich said in statement that the story is inaccurate.
“This matter is about trespassing. The volunteers from Jess King’s campaign entered private property and became aggressive,” he wrote in an email. “They were asked to leave and refused, so the police were notified.”
Kemp disagrees.
“There was an undertone,” said Kemp. “Her attitude really reinforces racial attitudes about inequality.”
Even after leaving, it wasn’t good enough. Kemp said the police showed up at her home.
“The fact the police came to my house–I don’t know what the basis of that was,” said Kemp. “That was really disturbing.”
