PRAIRIE VIEW, Texas — The life and legacy of Sandra Bland are now permanently memorialized in the Prairie View community, just yards away from where her fateful 2015 encounter with a Texas State Trooper took place.
Bland was pulled over by the trooper in 2015 for a minor traffic violation and things quickly escalated when she refused to get out of the car. Dashcam and cellphone videos showed former Trooper Brian Encinia yelling at her and trying to yank her out of the vehicle and then slamming her to the ground.
Just days after her arrest, she was found dead in her Waller County jail cell. Her death was ruled a suicide, and the videos ignited a national outcry against police brutality and racial injustice.
On Tuesday, city officials in Prairie View unveiled a marker in a park near the school and community she loved dearly, detailing her life’s story.
“Seeing her street name coming in, Sandra Bland Parkway, that still brings me joy, but the memorial itself, it is a culmination of what we thought we were going to have seven years ago,” Geneva Reed Veal, Bland's mother, said.
For other members of the Bland family, seeing the memorial brings on mixed emotions.
“It’s bittersweet because it also lets me know she’s no longer here,” Shante Needham, Bland's older sister, said.
"She clearly has touched the world and I’m grateful to be her mom, I’m grateful to be the one that God saw fit to use for her to come forth,” Reed-Veal said.
Bland's family vowed her legacy will continue.
“She will always speak through us, she will always be in our mouths, she will always be recognized and people will not be able to forget here because her voice demands to be heard,” Needham said.
The trooper was later fired for violating protocol and a perjury charge was dropped after he agreed to give up his law enforcement license.
Everyone in the Waller County Jail was cleared of wrongdoing.
But Bland's death led to changes in state law after her family revealed she had suffered from depression and had been treated for mental health issues.
The Sandra Bland Act requires jailers to immediately determine whether inmates suffer from mental illness and divert those who do to a mental health facility.