Black Lives Matter protests in small towns across the South have stirred up long-silenced conversations on racial justice.
A crowd of 500 people gathered under an expansive blue sky at the base of a rusty bridge that crosses the Intracoastal Waterway in Belle Chasse, Louisiana, on June 12.
The U.S. South, the heart of where the civil rights movement began, is home to the largest population of Black Americans in the country. People who identify as Black make up about 55% of the population, according to 2010 data from the U.S. Census Bureau. A total of 105 Southern counties have a Black population of 50% or higher.
“Conversations are being had that people refused to have," Belle Chasse resident Candice Dinet said as she marched June 12 with about 500 neighbors and family members."It’s all coming up to the surface, and it’s not going away anytime soon.”"There are people in Belle Chasse that believe everything is fine here," said Abby Taylor, a Belle Chasse resident and one of the organizers of the June 12 march.
“I want the name of that bridge changed. Let it be the Belle Chasse bridge," Trufant said."Once I got up there, I was angry. I had a weird feeling. I felt like I was walking on him.”Earnest prayers for forgiveness and unity and trust and love echoed through downtown Prattville, Alabama, the morning of June 5.
The gathering quickly took on the spirit of a church service, complete with hand-held paper fans. Some went to their knees on the lawn of City Hall. She brought a recording of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and a 1968 copy of a Life magazine cover of Coretta Scott King with her to a City Hall meeting.Protests in the wake of Floyd’s death have rippled this quiet town, known locally as the"Friendly City" as well as the “safest city in Mississippi,” according to several online polls.
Citizens Militia of Mississippi members declined to comment, but said they came to the rally only to observe.Protesters also called out Marx for taking no action on the death of 34-year-old Marc Davis of LaPlace, Louisiana, who was shot to death by Petal police officer Aaron Jernigan in June 2017. "I feel like I have to humanize my child," she said."I'm going to tell you how real my child was. How he mattered. Marc was a family man, a Black man. Marc had the biggest laugh, the biggest smile."A demonstration against police brutality and racial injustice in Chalmette, Louisiana, on June 6 was the first of its kind, drawing support and opposition ahead of it, according to organizers.
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