All lives matter, but it's black lives Mercutio Southall is fighting for - AL.com
Southall, 30, is a would-be police officer who turned to activism, beginning to make himself more visible int he public eye after the gas explosion in Gate City in 2013. In the years since, he has been cuffed up and roughed up, arrested and... He has protested police and stood at the forefront of the Birmingham Black Lives Matter movement. Where there has been protest in Birmingham, there has been Mercutio – a giant of a man who is as contradictory as he is controversial. He is a nerd and a fighter, a Cub Scout leader but no Boy Scout himself. He is an athlete who fell short in the Birmingham Police Academy because he couldn't pass the physical after a knee injury, and he is a harsh critic of law enforcement. This is Mercutio Southall:. Southall's mother looked to William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet when picking out a name for her baby boy. "She wanted me to have a unique name,'' Southall said. "We're from Selma initially, which is part of the reason I'm like this,'' he said. "My mom was married to a crack head so I had to work two jobs for me and my sisters,'' he said. Southall provided for his sisters by working at McDonald's, at the race course, and selling newspapers. At 19, he got married and began to play semi-pro football as a defensive tackle for the Birmingham Diamondbacks. Source: www.al.com
