Profile of a WAMM Activist: April Knutson

by Lucia Wilkes Smith, WAMM

I first met April Knutson when we both were active members of the Coalition for Police Accountability in Minneapolis. April was drawn to that group by her understanding of systemic racism playing itself out in the daily acts of discriminatory, and sometimes brutal, actions of individual police officers against members of our community.

At that time, I was co-director of WAMM and we worked in solidarity with many people from diverse backgrounds to educate the community and change the conditions that perpetuate police brutality.

This organizing entailed countless hours of meeting, planning, monitoring hearings and testimony, advocating for disenfranchised groups and individuals, hosting conferences, writing statements and media releases, publishing "Know Your Rights" wallet cards to be carried by young people (who can be especially vulnerable to police brutality), and promoting the development of a body that came to be known as the Minneapolis Civilian Review Board.

Sometimes our work was very interesting. Often it was tiresome drudgery. Always, we could look to April to remind us of the larger vision. Always, April kept her focus--and ours--on the ultimate, greater, societal good.

When the Civilian Rights Review Board devolved into a grave disappointment, a mediocre semblance of the body we had originally envisioned, April was able to analyze the missteps we had taken along the road we had hoped to travel in creating a significant change. I believe that April's combination of a strongly positive spirit and incisive analytic ability presents a great gift to the peace and justice community--a gift that we must value deeply as we take the time to reflect on her work.

April has been an active member of WAMM,s elected steering committee, serving as co-chair in 1998-1999. She also serves on the Arms Around the Earth committee, taking the video "Arms For the Poor" into the broader community. The video vividly portrays the destructive aftermath to economies and human life that follows arms sales by the United States throughout the developing world.

Just as she clearly stated the relationship of systemic racism to individual acts of violence by police officers against people of color, April helps the communities she educates "make the connection" between the grand scale and the minute instance of violence and exploitation.

She also has a wonderful, deep, and ebullient laugh. I am reminded of the Nicaraguan people I met during the early 1980s who loved to dance and sing and laugh in the midst of their revolutionary struggle. April knows the importance of finding and developing personal relationships. She understands that striving for true justice does not preclude laughter and joy.