On the day Joseph R. Biden Jr. was sworn in as president in 2021, an eclectic mix of demonstrators convened at the Colorado state capitol building in Denver.
Among them that January day was DonQuenick Beasley, who had a message different from others in the crowd.
The Bible-quoting black cannabis-rights activist held a sign saying “Give Us Our harvest” and at one point shouted down other demonstrators so she could talk about the injustice she sees in an industry dominated by white men while black men languish in prison for non-violent marijuana convictions.
“Give us our harvest” was her call for those prisoners to be released, trained and allowed to enter the legal cannabis industry, growing marijuana in fields where slaves once picked cotton.