Aiden Sykes (AS) and Albert Sykes (Abs)

Narrator: Last week on StoryCorps… we heard from Albert Sykes and his then 9-year-old son Aidan. They recorded five years ago in Jackson, Mississippi…

AS: So Dad, why do you take me to protests so much?

AbS: [Laughs] I think I take you for a bunch of reasons. One is that I want you to see what it looks like when people come together, but also that you understand that it’s not just about people that are familiar to you but it’s about everybody. Did you know the work that Martin Luther King was doing was for everybody and it wasn’t just for Black people?

AS: Yes, I understand that.

Narrator: After hearing that conversation, we asked StoryCorps to invite them back to record another interview.

AS: What do you think about the protests that are happening now?

AbS: I hate that they’re necessary but I also appreciate that we’re living in a world that we borrowed to be able to give back to the folks who come behind us. And your responsibility when you borrow something is to give it back in the same condition. But if you can give it back in better condition, that’s the goal. 

So the protests that you were just at on Saturday in Jackson, when you looked around, how did you take that in?

AS: Oh, I was happy ‘cause I saw a lot of young people like me out there–people of all ages and all colors and all shapes and all sizes–and I was like, at least we got some back up. 

AbS: What’s been the hardest part of dealing with all of this for you?

AS: The hardest part is knowing that could have been me and Breonna Taylor could have been my mother.

AbS: Next month you turn 15. You’re growing up, getting so tall and getting hair on your face, and just your presence, some places, people don’t see the child in you. They don’t see the innocence in you. Even though you’re not a threat, you’re still perceived as a threat.

But when I look at you, not only do I see somebody who looks just like me; I see a beautiful kid coming into understanding himself. I see somebody who makes me proud up and down. 

AS: Being Black… it’s one of the best things and one of the most beautiful things you could ever be but it’s like you always have a target on your back. 

AbS: Yeah, I want you to always understand that you was born with everything it takes for you to survive in this world, so keep the wind pushing you forward and you keep the sun shining on your face. 

I mean, we have talks about how much you mean to me and things that I have learned from you are how to love endlessly and I tell people, like, that’s my hero. 

AS: Knowing that I’m your hero is one of the best things I could ever hear. And the most important lesson I’ve learned from you is, when you want something, keep fighting for it. Don’t let nobody tell you you can’t and, no matter who or what gets in your way, keep going.