MILWAUKEE (SPECTRUM NEWS) - After the murder of George Floyd, Karen Hartwell, 72 of Muskego, says she knew she had to do something. 

“We can all do something,” Hartwell says.

Every Wednesday and Saturday you will find Hartwell raising her signs and energetically supporting the Black Lives Matter movement. 

“I am too old to be able to go on that long protest, so I just wanted to think of something that I could do as an individual. So, I came up with this idea on June 1. The first day I came out here and stood alone, ” she says. 

Hartwell says she’s received a lot of support through Facebook and she is always looking for new friends to join her at the corner of 27th and Oklahoma streets, just south of downtown.

“The first couple days it was hard…It does take a bit of personal courage to do this, but I try not to focus on myself.  I try to focus on the good that we are doing,” Hartwell says. 

She’s doing something for the purpose of lasting change.

“It is so gratifying to hear the traffic and pedestrians really support the movement,” she says. 

A movement, not a moment, she is proud to be a part of. 

“I truly believe that everybody can do something; so all acts both large and small really can make a difference,” Hartwell says. 

Hartwell says her greatest influence is her fifth-grade teacher.

Today, nearly 6o years later, Sister Cynthia’s passion to speak and educate about injustice still sticks with Hartwell.​