Benefit concert to fight against racism
Nate Jones
Issue date: 12/7/04 Section: Lifestyles
He had a face you might have seen along Delmar Avenue in the Loop. He'd be hanging with friends, running through the labels of musical artists from all ages in the holy sonic interior of the record shop known as Vintage Vinyl. Maybe he was coming back from months of school at the University of Dayton and relaxing in his hometown from the hardships of being a college student or maybe he was at a party on one of the many area campuses.
Nick Holmes was a people person who had friends in many places. He visited them at their schools every once in a while. One such visit at the University of Kentucky was fatal.
Nick was hanging out with one of his friends from the university, walking down an unsafe alleyway that usually screams caution, but after a few beers, you wouldn't notice. It may have been alcohol or it may have not, but Nick ran into some trouble in the form of a group of whites who saw something wrong with his friend just because he is African-American. The pack of bigots began yelling racial slurs at Nick and proceeded to assault his friend. Nick's natural humane instincts kicked in, and he attempted to defend his friend. But this defense was a short stand; as soon as he stepped in, the attackers focused on him with multiple head butts. The first one split his entire forehead open and the second broke his nose. Nick went down, and the bludgeoning fists of bigotry followed him on his descent. When Nick hit the ground, the back of his head split open. The bigots continued their attack, the whole time shouting racial slurs.
After a few minutes, loving, caring, compassionate Nick Holmes lay dead on the street, and the attackers had escaped. And all this had happened because Nick was trying to defend his friend. Theirs was a friendship free of color discrimination. Forty years after the Civil Rights Movement, after sit-ins and protests, after equal rights laws and after it seemed that racial hatred has been overcome, this tragic incident had occurred. Nick's death is a shame and a slap in the face of every civil rights activist who endured, in the name of true freedom, the cattle prods, fire hoses and police dogs unleashed by racists. The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. would shed a tear were he with us today.
Nick Holmes was a people person who had friends in many places. He visited them at their schools every once in a while. One such visit at the University of Kentucky was fatal.
Nick was hanging out with one of his friends from the university, walking down an unsafe alleyway that usually screams caution, but after a few beers, you wouldn't notice. It may have been alcohol or it may have not, but Nick ran into some trouble in the form of a group of whites who saw something wrong with his friend just because he is African-American. The pack of bigots began yelling racial slurs at Nick and proceeded to assault his friend. Nick's natural humane instincts kicked in, and he attempted to defend his friend. But this defense was a short stand; as soon as he stepped in, the attackers focused on him with multiple head butts. The first one split his entire forehead open and the second broke his nose. Nick went down, and the bludgeoning fists of bigotry followed him on his descent. When Nick hit the ground, the back of his head split open. The bigots continued their attack, the whole time shouting racial slurs.
After a few minutes, loving, caring, compassionate Nick Holmes lay dead on the street, and the attackers had escaped. And all this had happened because Nick was trying to defend his friend. Theirs was a friendship free of color discrimination. Forty years after the Civil Rights Movement, after sit-ins and protests, after equal rights laws and after it seemed that racial hatred has been overcome, this tragic incident had occurred. Nick's death is a shame and a slap in the face of every civil rights activist who endured, in the name of true freedom, the cattle prods, fire hoses and police dogs unleashed by racists. The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. would shed a tear were he with us today.
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