As the Black Lives Matter movement continues to gain ground in Atlanta, Sir Maejor Page has emerged as a prominent – if self ordained — face for the movement.
But others who claim to carry the Black Lives Matter mantle denounce him as a fraud, a violent homophobe and a con-artist who started his own group Black Lives Matter of Greater Atlanta after he was bounced out of the city’s official chapter.
“Who is he and why does he keep showing up at protests?” asked Dawn O’Neal a leader in the Black Lives Matter and in Rise Up Georgia, a group that does a lot of work around mental health. “How is he in a meeting with the mayor when the people who set it up were not allowed in? He is a dangerous person with violent tendencies, who seeks out the press and follows the work that we have been doing and gets in front of the camera. Enough is enough.”
This doesn’t bother Sir Maejor.
“You are going have folks that say, ‘Sir Maejor is an actor. Sir Maejor doesn’t speak for all black people,” Sir Maejor said. “Well, I never claimed to be the voice of all black people. I don’t speak for all black people. But when I speak they listen. When I lead they follow.”
World’s Sexiest Albino
As visible as Sir Maejor is — on the streets and on television — his back story is murky, by design.
Asked where he came from and the answer is, “just Ohio.”
Asked how he got his name Sir Maejor he said, “God gave it to me.”
He acknowledges that he is the adopted nephew of Minnesota Supreme Court Justice and former NFL great Alan Page, who is from Canton, Ohio. Alan Page’s sister is Twila Page, an outspoken child advocate in Toledo, Ohio, who adopted six children – including a two-year-old named Tyree Conyers Page.
On his personal Webpage, Sir Maejor wrote that he was diagnosed with albinism at the age of two.
“The word albino can be derogatory. The word albino can be rude,” Sir Maejor said. “But I took that word and made it cool. They call me the ‘World’s Sexiest Albino.’ Look it up.”
A Google search of “World’s Sexiest Albino,” does show Sir Maejor. But it is listed on his own Webpage.
And to further spread his message and market himself, his name on Twitter is actually the popular hashtag #BlackLivesMatter. It has garnered him close to 26,000 followers.
Sir Maejor was arrested in June for causing a disturbance outside of a Donald Trump appearance in Atlanta, public records searches also show that in May of 2011, while a student at the University of Toledo, he was banned from campus for a number of offenses, including menacing, harassment and making 18 phone calls to the office and residence of the university’s president.
He moved to Atlanta the same year with the promise of a job in radio, but it never materialized.
“I woke up one day and said I am going to be an actor and model,” Sir Maejor said. So I started marketing myself as an actor and model. I claimed it.”
It worked. He booked a couple of modeling gigs and a few small roles — mostly standing in the background. He said he even got requests to do porn, before he got a call from the producers of “American Horror Story: Coven” to play the role of “Albino Henchman.”
He appeared in three episodes, then “took a break from TV and film to look out for black people,” Sir Maejor said.
He took a job as a bounty hunter, then a security guard. He said he then began teaching people on the streets how to protect themselves from police. Sir Maejor said the interactions with the police led him to be a “full-fledged activist.”
He just needed a base to affiliate himself with.
‘I don’t need permission’
O’Neal said the first time she remembers seeing Sir Maejor was at a Black Lives Matter rally in November. He was hard to miss.
“He had on a bullet proof vest, was wearing a body camera and had a gun on his hip. Why he was at the protest with the body cam, vest and gun nobody knows,” O’Neal. “But I remember that he got agitated and belligerent.”
Sir Maejor said the vest, camera and gun were part of his uniform as a security guard.
But on Dec. 27, 2014 he was arrested and charged by the APD for impersonating a police officer. Police say that Sir Maejor “arrested” a woman at a gas station he was working at as a security guard for carrying an open container. Police say he was dressed like a police officer — carrying a Glock, a stun gun and pepper spray — and identified himself as a member of the Fugitive Task Force when he called it in.
The “uniform” was becoming a problem. According to police reports Sir Maejor was arrested at least two more times — once each in 2015 by the Atlanta Police Department and in 2016 by Capitol police — on charges involving impersonating a police officer.
O’Neal said Sir Maejor later contacted her on Facebook and said he was having trouble with the police.
“I told him about the Black Lives Matter chapter and that he should come out,” O’Neal said. “He came and joined Black Lives Matter with us. He seemed like he was excited about the work that he was doing.”
But it became clear early on that he was not wanted in the group and he didn’t want to be there. Both sides agree on why.
They pushed the queer movement hard,” Sir Maejor said. “They were force feeding it down our throats. You can’t say that black lives matter and focus on something else. Your sexuality has nothing to do with black lives being killed in the streets.”
Chapter members said Sir Maejor actively worked against them.
“He goes on social media and tells people the buses and events have been cancelled. He does things to constantly disrupt us, so he was asked to leave,” O’Neal said.
But his new organization Black Lives Matter of Greater Atlanta was rejected by the national group in part because of his attitude towards the LGBTQ community.
“He is the head of an organization that does not exist, used to support his claim to leadership, and it is dangerous,” said Aurielle Marie Lucier, spokeswoman for the Atlanta social justice organization #ItsBiggerThanYou.
Sir Majeor counters “We started Black Lives Matter of Greater Atlanta because we wanted a different operational system. I don’t need permission to do this work.”
‘He is dangerous’
Which is what has enraged his critics.
In mid-July Atlanta was in the middle of daily marches and protests in response to a series of shooting deaths of black men by police in Louisiana and Minnesota.
On July 12, protestors marched from Lenox Mall to the Governor’s Mansion, to demand action. Gov. Nathan Deal was out of the country, so the protestors demanded a meeting with Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed and Police Chief George Turner.
The two met privately with four Black Lives Matter members, and agreed to have a formal meeting at City Hall on July 18.
Sir Maejor was not one of the four. But at the meeting those original organizers, as well as scores of other protestors stormed out in anger because they didn’t like the tone of the meeting. Sir Maejor stayed.
“I see them walk in the door with complete disrespect,” Sir Maejor said of the other activists. “They were hostile, arrogant and cocky. I told the mayor, ‘I will meet with you.’ So I grabbed the mic and apologized for the disrespect. I had every right, responsibility and obligation to be at the meeting.”
Lucier said watching the press conference left her “disappointed and afraid.”
“Afraid that folks will see Sir Maejor and the misleading name of Black Lives Matter next to his name and assume that that is someone they can trust,” Lucier said. “I am afraid that they will trust him, but he is dangerous.”
The voice and face
Sir Maejor said he continues to build his group, but won’t say how many members it has.
“I say this in the most humble way. People are saying that I am the voice and face of this movement,” Sir Maejor said. “I got black leaders saying that they are passing the torch to me. I am not waiting to be ordained. A leader is born. You do the work.”
Sir Maejor said his group feeds over 400 families twice a week, but a promise to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution to document one of the feedings last week was later canceled.
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