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LEVEL Best Man 2020
The Unsung Hero Who Protected a Complete Stranger From Her Racist Neighbor For 90 Days
Queens rapper turned community watchman Anthony Herron Jr. epitomized the phrase ‘Protect Black women’
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Jennifer McLeggan felt she was all out of options. The 39-year-old single mother and registered nurse had been racially harassed by her neighbor for the three years since she first moved into her Long Island house just outside of Queens, New York. And while the means of intimidation grew more menacing — she says her neighbor brandished a blowtorch and pellet gun, as well as throwing dead squirrels and human feces onto her property — the local police reportedly refused to intervene since no physical assault had occurred. Nevermind the fact that her neighbor allegedly said McLeggan, a Black woman, should go back where she came from and that she could be “erased.”
Scared for her life and the safety of her two-year-old daughter, McLeggan posted a large note on her front door in July, a rundown of the harassment she’d experienced and a cry for help from the community. The internet did its thing: An image of her note quickly went viral on social media, resonating deeply in the aftermath of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd’s tragic deaths earlier this year.
While many reposted the image in symbolic support, Anthony Herron Jr. took things one step further. A big step. The 30-year-old Queens native (a recording artist who raps under the moniker F.L.O.W.) connected with McLeggan — a complete stranger — and offered to post up outside of her house on watch overnight, in the hours when her harassment had usually taken place. There he sat, whether inside his car or on a foldout chair, for 90 consecutive nights, until her legal case against the neighbor went to trial.
Herron’s selfless heroism inspired others to join him in person to ensure the security of McLeggan and her daughter. His action serves as a shining example of how Black men can show up and stand up for Black women unconditionally, and take the forever-relevant phrase “protect Black women”…
