Texas road renamed for Sandra Bland

The last time Shavon Bland was in Prairie View, it was to watch her younger sister Sandra graduate from Prairie View A&M University. She returned Friday with her mother and sister to see the unveiling of a street sign naming a stretch of road after Sandra Bland, a former Naperville resident whose death fueled national outrage about police brutality.

Shavon stood a few hundred feet from where 28-year-old Bland was pulled over in July for an improper lane change along University Drive. She was found dead in her Waller County jail cell three days later, a plastic trash bag around her neck. Her death was ruled a suicide.

Wearing a red shirt with her sister's name on top, as well as the names of other women who died in police custody, she wiped away tears and listened to community and family members describe the new street sign as a partial victory, a way to carry on her sister's name and spread awareness, but not the ultimate goal.

"It's not about just Sandy," Bland's mother, Geneva Reed-Veal, said to a crowd circled around her at the corner of Echols and what is now known as Sandra Bland Parkway. "It's about other women and men who've died at the hands of officers who've sworn to protect them."

For the full story, visit the Houston Chronicle website.