Huda Ahmed first saw fists raised in protest after the deaths of Eric Garner and Philando Castile at the hands of police. “As a young Black girl,” the San Diego activist says, “that symbolic fist really opened my eyes to the injustices within our country.” This summer, Ahmed has been raising her own fist during Black Lives Matter protests. She does it, she says, because the gesture “signifies resiliency and power through every triumph and struggle.”

The raised fist has been a staple of protests across the United States as the country continues to grapple with systemic racism. Demonstrators use it when confronting federal police in Portland, Oregon. People have spray painted it on sidewalks and the sides of buildings. There