Nashville resident inspires neighbors to walk together to fight fear

Shawn Dromgoole stood on the front porch of his family's house Thursday night wearing a black T-shirt with the words "#wewalkwithshawn" in pink letters.

He was surrounded by his grandmother, his mother and his brother, who played a song called "Walk With Me" as he strummed a guitar.

What Dromgoole saw from that porch on the property where his family has lived for 54 years was a crowd north of 150 people. A crowd that would swell to 300-400 as Dromgoole and his "neighbors" made their way through the streets of the South Nashville neighborhood for "We Walk With Shawn" night.

Some people brought their dogs. Others pushed strollers.

Dromgoole was afraid to walk in his neighborhood a couple months ago.

Now, the 29-year-old can't stop walking with his neighbors. Can't stop talking about walking.

A couple of days after George Floyd died in Minneapolis on May 25 while in police custody, Dromgoole posted a message on Facebook and the Nextdoor app saying he didn't feel safe walking the streets in his 12th Street South neighborhood in South Nashville.

Where his grandmother, Carolyn Washington, bought a house with a Veterans Affairs loan after his grandfather died in Vietnam.

Where he roamed freely as a child, he said, without fearing for his life.

He said he'd become afraid because he's Black. He said he's been stopped "for walking in the neighborhood while Black." He said he always carries his ID and talks on the phone while walking "because if I get in trouble somebody needs to hear me scream."

"That fear has been put in my DNA," Dromgoole said.

Post by shawn.m.dromgoole.

"Yesterday I wanted to walk around my neighborhood but the fear of not returning home to my family alive kept me on my front porch," he posted in his initial message on Facebook in the days that followed Floyd's death in Minneapolis. "Today I wanted to walk again and I could not make it off the porch. Then I called my mother, Lynetra, and she said she would walk with (me). I still kept my ID on me and my phone in my hand but I walked. #Icantbreath(e) #icantsleep #icantwalk"

Soon after his post, Dromgoole's neighbors offered to walk with him. First, around 75 met him in a restaurant parking lot, prompting Dromgoole to help organize another walk, this time on those streets he was afraid to walk not long ago.

With the help of neighbors from near and far – people from Belle Meade and Antioch, among others, showed up Thursday – Dromgoole's fear has turned into hope. The talk turned into a walk.

Drumgoole said he plans to keep walking – one city per state per week is his goal.

'I want to go on neighborhood walks across the country'

Dromgoole said he was "flabbergasted and amazed" by the response to the first walk, that it "changed his life forever." The walks also changed his perspective.

He hopes other people, outside his neighborhood, start walking. He wants to join them. He wants to start a movement.

That wasn't his intention, he said, when he posted "from his heart" on Facebook. Now, he said, it feels like his calling.

"We haven't named it yet, but I really want it to be something," he said. "I want to Forrest Gump it. I want to go on neighborhood walks across the country."

Dromgoole pointed out that his walks aren't protests, but rather about unity. About getting to know and help neighbors. About not being afraid.

His Thursday walk was held On Thursday, he led a group of people through the streets of South Nashville, at the same time as the peaceful protest downtown. another rally was taking place downtown. People cheered along the route. Strangers became friends. Metro Police were present, offering their help if needed.

"I teared up to see this many people all coming together," said Ashley Eicher, who came from Belle Meade to walk after hearing from a friend who walked with Dromgoole the first time. "It shows how many people have been touched by Shawn and his story."

Chip Dorsch, who lives in Inglewood, Englewood, walked with Dromgoole the first time and wasn't going to miss Thursday's walk.

"I've been struggling on how to deal with what's going on," Dorsch said. "It was a no-brainer. ... I'd sort of been staying out of the social discourse, probably out of fear and not really knowing what to contribute. ... I'm not going to be the most educated on race relations or be able to speak as eloquently as I want to, but I know how to be kind. If we can start with just being kind, we can start a wave."

Predators forward Nick Bonino tweeted support for Dromgoole: "Tonight I'm happy to #walkwithshawn, we need to get to a point where no one is afraid to go for a walk in their neighborhood, or anywhere."

Also in Bonino's tweet was a message: "Black lives matter. Racism exists, and we need change now. I have led a very privileged life, and I want to help create a future where there is equality and justice for all. My wife and I are taking steps to educate ourselves and our children, and hopefully we can do our part in effectuating change."

Dromgoole On Thursday, Dromgoole walked past the park where he played as a child, where he walked his elderly neighbor to ceramics classes. He walked past restaurants and the innocence he knew as a child.

'Simple, but complicated'

Dromgoole said his story is "very simple, but very complicated." He grew up in South Nashville in a mostly black neighborhood. His grandmother built another house in the backyard of the house she originally bought.

"It was mostly Black because it was a white flight neighborhood," he said. "The person who sold my grandmother his house, sold his house because he did not want to live next door to a n----- (n-word), if I can be blunt."

He wants to raise awareness about fear. He wants to start a foundation for neighbors to help neighbors.

He said he plans to walk the streets of Brunswick, Georgia, next. That's where he regularly attends family reunions, where Black jogger Ahmaud Arbery was shot and killed in February.

"That really could have happened to me," Dromgoole said. "I could have easily taken the wrong turn on the wrong street."

Now the man who works in the shoe department at Nordstrom wants everyone to walk together. On whichever streets they choose. He began with the streets he knows best.

"It's amazing because I showed the world the neighborhood and how good it is," he said. "It's one thing to be afraid and stay on your porch and be mad. It's a whole 'nother thing to change. My neighborhood gave me the ability to change."

By the end of the walk, which lasted about 45 minutes, Dromgoole addressed the crowd again, thanked them for taking part. Talked of his dreams of walking the streets of America, one city at at time.

But only after changing into another shirt, which read: "I am not a threat. #iamablackman."

"Everyone is someone's neighbor," he said a couple of days before the walk. "No matter if you're Black, white, gay, straight, blue, green, purple, yellow, you're somebody's neighbor."

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Nashville resident inspires neighbors to walk together