A butterfly that tells first responders what words sometimes can't.

It started with a talk every Black mother knows — and a prayer that became a butterfly.

After George Floyd was murdered, Linda had the talk with her son. Eric understood — and then he started crying, not for himself, but for his friends on the spectrum, afraid of what a traffic stop could become for them. "We gotta do something now," Eric Carpenter-Grantham said. For the symbol, Eric prayed on it. They considered a star. Then he chose the butterfly — for what it means: hope, peace, freedom and change.

Five years later, Maryland became the first state to print it.

Why these colors? The butterfly was born in the colors of the Invisible Disability Awareness ribbon. Maryland asked for it in black for the license — so black became the mark of the law. And the blue on this page is Eric's tribute to his father: royal blue, the autism-ribbon color for acceptance and calmness. 💙