Dr. Verna Cornelia Price and Brother Shane Price stand for a portrait inside of the Power of People Leadership Institute in Minneapolis on Monday, Feb. 3, 2019. "My vision is to have every African-American child, every African child, every Caucasian child, understand the impact and significance of African-American people and what they bring to this country," Verna Price said. 

Valerie, 62, and Allysza Castile, 26, the mother and sister of Philando Castile sit for a portrait inside their Brooklyn Park, Minn., home on Feb. 25, 2019. Since Philando's death, Valerie has been an advocate for police and criminal justice reform and founded the Philando Castile Relief Foundation, ". I never envisioned my life to be what you would consider a change agent. That is not what I had planned for my life. I didn't plan for my son to be murdered either but I'm just not going to sit back and just let that happen," she said.

St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter sits for a portrait inside of his office in St. Paul, Minn., on Feb. 7, 2019. Carter is the city's first black mayor and a 4th generation St. Paulite, "I don't know that my vision for the future of African-Americans in Minnesota is all that different than my vision for the future of everyone. Our mantra is building a city that works for all of us. And that means all of us have to get an opportunity to be a part of the decision-making processes that impact our life," he said.

James Badue-El, 26, stands for a portrait in Minneapolis on Jan. 28, 2019. Badue-El serves as the criminal justice state chair for the Minneapolis NAACP where he works to reduce prison recidivism. "So with the work that I do, I just work to give us the opportunity to see ourselves in a better light to say that we are strong enough we are wise and that we are big enough. We've overcome so much so let's actually overcome even more right now," Badue-El said. 

State District Court Judge Juanita Freeman stands for a portrait inside the Washington County Courthouse on Feb. 6, 2019. Freeman is the first black judge in Wahsington County, "I think we feel here in Minnesota as a people, hopefully, that we've made strides, I think, for equality and things of that nature. So I think as a black Minnesotan speaking for myself, I feel like I'm at home. I don't feel like my home is a perfect home, but I feel like it's making strides to be that way," Freeman said. 

Jerry Holt, 58, Star Tribune staff photographer sits for a portrait inside his Brooklyn Park, Minn., home on Jan. 29, 2019. Holt has been documenting Minnesota's stories for decades, "My parents always instilled in me that I was as equal as anybody else. It had nothing to do with my skin color. I was no better or no worse than anyone else. And so I've never had a chip on my shoulder or anything, that I was nothing other than a perfect human being," Holt said. 

Hennepin County District 4 Commissioner Angela Conley sits for a portrait inside of the Hennepin County Government Center in Minneapolis on Tuesday, Feb. 19, 2019. "I envision this future where our neighborhoods and our communities are thriving and they're beautiful, which they currently are. But more in a way where everyone has access to the same resources, to the same No. 1 park system, to the same avenues of wealth creation that everybody else has or has historically been given," Conley said.

Walter "Q bear" Banks Jr., 59, a DJ and operations manager at KMOJ community radio station sits for a portrait inside the station in Minneapolis on Feb. 4, 2019. Banks has been broadcasting the Minneapolis sound at the station for 40 years, "So for me, being a black male in the state of Minnesota is just, stand up and be black and be proud of that because there's been so much negativity that's been thrown at you of what you can't be and what you are not. Everything has been negative. But there's the positive side of when you start looking in the mirror and you see in yourself and you start believing in who you look at in the mirror," Banks said.

Retired Judge Pamela Alexander sits for a portrait at MPR in St. Paul, on Friday, Feb. 15, 2019. Alexander is the first black female judge in the state of Minnesota, "Now that the population's gotten bigger, I'm concerned about some of the huge gaps that we have here. But I'm also excited about the opportunities that are available for people to become a huge part of this community," she said. 

Lou Bellamy, 75, founded Penumbra Theatre in 1976 to provide a platform for African-American voices. His daughter, Sarah Bellamy, 40, took over as the company's artistic director in 2017. The two of them are pictured here inside the theater in St. Paul on Feb. 26, 2019. "We wanted to give voice to people who had heretofore been voiceless or had been represented in ways where they didn't have control over the iconology and images used to describe them," Lou said. 

Farji Shaheer, 39, program manager and director of the Next Step program at Hennepin County Medical Center and North Memorial Hospital sits for a portrait inside HCMC, on Jan. 24, 2019. "I'd really like to see it where we can go a whole summer, maybe a whole year without anyone being shot down by nonsensical violence or emotional violence. Also, I would like to see some of the gun laws changed. But that's a different story," Shaheer said.