EL SEGUNDO, Calif. — It started with a tweet showing a white mother marching alone in rural Minnesota, with a sign that read: “I can’t breathe.”

Then it went viral. As it turns out, the man behind the camera was her adopted Black son.

LA Times national correspondent Jaweed Kaleem traveled to Ottertail, Minnesota to get the story behind this tweet, which was more complex than he could have imagined.

What You Need To Know

  • The Ugstads are a large, mostly white family in the small town of Ottertail, Minnesota

  • Marcy Ugstad, a white mother with four kids, grew up admiring Rosa Parks and Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

  • After George Floyd’s death, Marcy held a one-woman march in June, which went viral after her son Jesse captured it on camera

  • Jesse wants to be a singer-songwriter and may want to move to California or Texas in the future

The Ugstads are a large, mostly white family in small-town Minnesota. They live in Ottertail, a Lakeside village of fewer than 700 residents which is three hours from Minneapolis.

Marcy Ugstad is a white mother with four kids. Her father was a union activist at a power plant. Growing up, Marcy believed racism was a sin and admired Rosa Parks and Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. When she reached her 40s, she decided to adopt with her husband John. Along with one of her sons, 22-year-old Jesse, she came to an awakening over race this summer.

Marcy and Jesse watched in tears as the videos of George Floyd’s last moments replayed on TV. This event also brought up some tough conversations regarding race for the two of them. Marcy admitted to Jesse that she felt overwhelmed with everything that had been going on regarding the injustices in America. But Jesse reminded her that this is something he has been dealing with his entire life.

“He told his mom that his experience as a Black man has exposed him to microaggressions, people thinking he’s not smart enough, and people telling him his experience as a Black man in this country is invalid,” said Kaleem.

After George Floyd’s death, Marcy wanted to go to Minneapolis to pray at outdoor church services at the corner where Floyd died. Jesse wanted to protest. Instead, they drove just a few minutes away to Otter Tail Lake.

“Marcy has originally asked a few of her church friends to go with her, but they said no," said Kaleem. "So instead, she went alone, took a red wagon, a metal rooster — which is a biblical symbol to remind herself that she could be wrong. And she took an American flag and a poster that said, “I can't breathe” on one side and “Repent” on the other, and she marched alone. So Jesse videotaped her and put it on Twitter and it went viral."

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Jesse wants to be a singer-songwriter and may want to move to California or Texas in the future. “He wants to be in a place, to be frank, with more Black people," said Kaleem. "But at home right now, he’s growing together with his mother. They’re both reading together, watching documentaries and films together, and discussing the news of the day. And conversations about racism continue today."