ATLANTA — Britt Jones-Chukura is an activist in Atlanta who organized and participated in many protests across the city this summer.
She is the co-founder of Justice for Georgia.
"I was actually extremely shocked," Jones-Chukura said of the grand jury announcement in the Breonna Taylor case on Wednesday in which none of the officers involved were held directly responsible for her death.
"I actually wanted to have hope," she added.
Tamika Mallory is a national activist, the co-founder of the organization Until Freedom and a former co-chair of the Women's March on Washington.
"We see very clearly that America is just incapable of giving Black people the justice we deserve," Mallory said while describing her reaction.
Both Mallory and Jones-Chukura said now is the time to push for noticeable changes toward racial equality and justice, because of the heightened attention and support nationwide for changes.
"If Congressman John Lewis could go from not voting, to Jim Crow Laws and then seeing the first Black president - those are huge hills that he had to climb, and I just keep that same strength with me," Jones-Chukra said.
She said she believes changes toward racial equality and justice need to begin with police officers on the streets.
"We need officers to get more involved with their communities so they can learn their communities and they can actually care about their communities," Jones-Chukura said.
In Washington D.C., there are three bills before Congress she said she is vocally supporting, as each could bring noticeable change: the Police Accountability Act, Grand Jury Reform Act, and Cooling Off Period Elimination Act. The bills call for overhauling police departments and officer training, creating systems for tracking use-of-force incidents, requiring special prosecutors for investigations into cases of law enforcement officers killing someone, and allowing the Department of Justice to bring charges in such cases if state's don't.
"The ban on no-knock warrants is also included there," Mallory said while discussing the trio of criminal justice bills.
Mallory said following the shooting death of Taylor, the city of Louisville passed a no-knock warrant ban. Now she is supporting the push for similar bans across the state of Kentucky and the nation.
"In addition to some of the individual laws that we have been pushing, defunding police is a major project that a lot of people are working on," Mallory said. "Some people want to call it different things, because the language scares people or makes people feel uncomfortable. Call it whatever you want, we just want to make sure there is an even playing field for what law enforcement is actually supposed to be doing and what our communities really need.
"Taking those resources and applying it to mental health, applying it to jobs in the community, making sure people have proper housing and proper education. That is what we want to see happen."
Jones-Chukura said she also wants to see change through people that support the push for equality and social justice reform - but have remained silent - finding their voices.
"Your silence toward support for our lives is loud enough," she explained. "It creates and encourages other people to be able to say some of the most hurtful things, do some of the most hurtful things."
Both Jones-Chukura and Mallory said recent events have raised the stakes for the Nov. 3 Presidential Election, so they're encouraging people to register to vote and then make a plan to vote early or on Election Day.
For Jones-Chukura, the work toward change continues after the election by following her local elected leaders at the state capitol, reading the proposed legislation they're voting on, and sharing her opinion.
"E-mail and tell them and say 'I support you passing this bill.' 'Hey I would not like you to pass this bill. This is the reason why.' It all correlates and it does create effective change," she said.