"I'm american. And the beauty of America is that if you see something that's broken, you can organize to fix it! ”Hawk Newsome was still quite perplexed when he shouted these words into the crowd - and when they responded with applause . Because those who applauded the black activist from New York also waved Trump flags and wore red caps with the words "Make America Great Again". It was a hot day in September 2017 and Newsome had come to Washington with eight friends to protest. The extreme right-wing escalation of violence in Charlottesville had only just happened a few weeks ago, and the president they celebrated here had described neo-Nazis and counter-demonstrators as "both sides", and good people could be found in their ranks.

Newsome grabbed the microphone after one of the organizers encouraged him to do so - after all, freedom of expression applies to everyone.

He improvised: “You ask why there is a Black Lives Matter movement?

Because you can watch a black man die, because you can watch him being strangled to death on TV and nothing happens. ”Newsome was referring to New Yorker Eric Garner, who said the same words as six shortly before his violent death in 2014 Years later George Floyd: "I can't breathe!" Then there were a few boos from the Trump fans.

Commemoration of the anniversary of George Floyd's death

Today Hawk Newsome sits in the basement of a cigar bar in the Bronx. The world has changed since the viral video that made him famous. Upstairs, the smoke wafts through the rooms with the heavy leather sofas, and the guests sit close together. Those who have been vaccinated against the coronavirus no longer have to wear a mask indoors, say the health authorities. And who's checking it out? Newsome thinks of the murder of George Floyd exactly a year ago that day. Back then, too, he and his friends wanted to be there, rented a hotel and went to demonstrate in Minneapolis. But someone wrote "BLM New York" on a wall near the escalating protests, and the police were quick to follow them - especially when newspapers printed a photo of Newsome with their fists raised."We ran away quickly - I had a couple of young people with me, and if they had been knocked out, I wouldn't have been able to explain that to their parents," says the 44-year-old Newsome and flicks ashes from his cigar. But in New York he organized protests again for months.

Newsome is often referred to as the head of Black Lives Matter in New York - but his group is one of many in the country that has distanced itself from the Black Lives Matter Global organization. He recently criticized founder Patrisse Cullors for her supposedly glamorous lifestyle. Cullors' organization had previously disowned Newsome because it had said on television that "the system should be burned down" if it couldn't be changed. He also warned against the proximity of some black activists to anti-Semites - an accusation Newsome was also not friends with.

No left movement can do without internal factions, and Newsome is more relaxed about it now - “They don't like me,” he laughs, pushing back his Yankees baseball cap. After all, the protests of the various groups in New York after Floyd's death achieved a few improvements: for example, part of the police budget was diverted to social work and the data of police officers who were disciplined for abuse of office are now public.