Roc Nation has just unveiled a new PSA dedicated to Hadiya Pendleton, an unarmed 15-year-old Black girl who was fatally shot in Chicago in 2013.
Pendleton was standing with her friends when she was shot in the back and killed by Micheail Ward. The police have linked the shooting to gang violence.
In the PSA, Hadiya’s mother, Cleopatra Cowley-Pendleton, says, “We lost all her children, her children’s children. We lost generations […] In junior high, she had a whole PSA: ‘Don’t be a part of gangs’ … She stood up for what she believed in.”
Check out the PSA below.
The PSA is the newest offering from JAY-Z and the NFL’s Responsibility Program, gives us a look into Project Orange Tree, a campaign created by Pendleton’s friends, with a focus on “educating youth about violence and its roots (structural violence) ” and is in close affiliation with the Lupe Fiasco Foundation.
“If we give the young people something to do, if we provide them with love and care, it would lift the awareness to the young that their voices matter and their lives matter—and they should be the ones to do something about that,” said Cowley-Pendleton.
