By Janeé Bolden ·Updated February 17, 2026 /> Getting your Trinity Audio player ready…

In the early morning hours of January 30, Georgia Fort turned on Facebook Live to share breaking news. As a three-time Emmy Award-winning journalist, this was not a new practice. She had turned her camera on a number of times to document history across Minnesota’s Twin Cities. Fort was one of only two journalists in the courtroom when Derek Chauvin was sentenced. She was on the scene within hours after an ICE agent fatally shot Renee Goode. She’d spent nearly 16 hours a day for the last three weeks on the frontlines, filming protestors and interviewing local officials to ensure the world knew the facts about life in Minneapolis.  But this time was different. This time the children who could be heard crying in the background of the video were her own daughters. This time, she was documenting the news that federal agents were outside her home to arrest her.

“Nothing can prepare you for unexpected forceful knocking at your door at six in the morning,” Fort tells ESSENCE of that fateful morning. “My husband had just left for work… I was here with my children, my three girls, 7, 8, and 17.”

Fort’s mother, also at her home at the time, asked to see a warrant. Fort called her attorney to confirm the legitimacy of the warrant, and after filming her quick update to Facebook Live, she surrendered to the agents waiting outside.

“Part of the reason why I’m so committed to telling our stories is because too often when you allow other people to tell your story, especially if you’re a Black American, they get it wrong,” Fort says about her social media broadcast. “I wanted to alert the public that a grand jury indictment was issued. This is what’s happening. It’s happening now. I wanted people to hear it directly from me. I’ve been reporting on what’s happening here for several weeks in Minnesota and I’ve seen a lot of inaccurate information. I’ve seen a lot of AI-generated images get put out into the world to try to manipulate the public’s understanding of what’s transpiring, so I wanted to have an accurate account of what I was experiencing.”

@byGeorgiaFort/Courtesy of Georgia Fort

While much of the world was reacting to news that former CNN journalist Don Lemon had been arrested the night before in Los Angeles, Fort’s video and a still from footage of her arrest began making their rounds, alerting the public that she had also been named in the indictment, which accused her of taking part in a “coordinated takeover- decoding=”async” src=”https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/02/GettyImages-2259127648-1-scaled.jpg” alt=”Exclusive: Georgia Fort On Her Arrest, The Fear It’s Left In Her Kids, And Why She’s Still Committed To Telling ‘Our Stories’” width=”400″ height=”266″ />Journalist Georgia Fort, right and State Senate candidate Jamael Lundy hold their hands to their hearts as they are greeted by family and supporters leaving the Federal Courthouse after being arrested in connection to a previous protest at Cities Church in Minneapolis, Minn., on Friday, January 30, 2026. ] RENEE JONES SCHNEIDER • renee.jones@startribune.com

“My mom is being arrested for documenting what happened at Cities Church, and this is wrong,” the teenager said during the news conference. “This goes against her First Amendment right as a journalist, and it’s being challenged today.”

“She is not a protester. She is not an activist. She is a mom working to provide for her children the only way she knows how, documenting and sharing stories of the community and truth of what’s happening here every day in our state. This moment of history doesn’t just affect me. It also affects my little sisters who had to wake up and comprehend at the ages of 7 and 8 why their mom had to be arrested today. My 7 and 8-year-old sister woke up today without a mom. My father woke up today without his wife. I’m demanding that my mom gets released. The separation of families will never be right.”

Fort appeared before a federal judge the same day as her arrest and was released shortly after on her own recognizance, but she says her children were left traumatized by the experience.

“My family means everything to me,” she shares. “I’ve worked my entire career to really try and provide the best life possible that I can for my kids, so it hurts deeply to see them impacted. It’s not just the day of the arrest. My kids are now scarred. They are living in fear. Our daily routines have been disrupted.”

Fort describes how her 8-year-old, a competitive gymnast, is now fearful to attend practices without her parents.

“To see her break down in tears and refuse to go into a place where she’s safe and just say, ‘I’m scared they’re gonna come get me,’ it’s devastating,” she says. “It’s not fair that her routine… and her interests are being disrupted. Because what? Because I’m a journalist who was doing my job.”

However, she refuses to let this moment silence her. Through her nonprofit and newsroom work, the reporter remains committed to buildingrel=”tag”>Don Lemon first amendment ICE Raids Minnesota

The post Exclusive: Georgia Fort On Her Arrest, The Fear It’s Left In Her Kids, And Why She’s Still Committed To Telling ‘Our Stories’ appeared first on Essence.