Reginald Bynum was hit by a car and killed while riding his dirt bike to his mother’s house in Southeast DC in 2021. The 24-year-old was coming home after a memorial ride for a friend who had died in a motorcycle crash not long before.
His mother, Fatima Lewis, has been reeling from the loss since that tragic 2021 day, grappling with the fact that the activity her son loved most is what would end his life. “He loved motorcycles and dirt bikes. He loved riding,” she said.
Bynum’s death is one of many stories that highlight a clash of culture and the law on the streets of Washington, DC and other urban areas. Dirt bikes and all-terrain vehicles (ATVs) are embraced by some in the Black community as a culture and form of expression, despite laws that forbid their use on all public roadways, sidewalks, and trails…