‘Just step one.’ With cops by their side, hundreds protest for George Floyd in Macon
Chanting “I can’t breathe,” “no justice, no peace,” and “hands up, don’t shoot,” hundreds of Middle Georgians marched through downtown Macon Tuesday evening, stopping outside of City Hall and the county courthouse as leaders encouraged participants to vote and advocate for change.
Escorted by Bibb County Sheriff’s deputies, who closed off streets along the march, participants heard from activists, elected officials and civic leaders, beginning and ending the march in front of the Tubman Museum on Cherry Street.
“I love a good old march, but this is just step one,” Macon’s Andrea Glover said on the courthouse steps. “Step two is ensuring you have registered to vote and your name has not been purged from the voter rolls. Once we register to vote, guess what we have to do? Vote.
“Presidential elections are not the only elections that matter. Your local government, your police chief, your local DA, Macon Water Authority, the school board, county commissioner… you can complain all you want, but they are the ones who make decisions about your everyday lives.”
Glover and others handed out voter registration forms after her speech.
More than 1,000 people marched, some carrying signs, others wearing masks. A man parked a pickup truck along the parade route coming to and leaving City Hall, passing out water from coolers in the bed. He didn’t want to share his name. “This is about them,” he said.
One of those signs read “I will breathe,” and it was carried by a 5-year-old boy named Caleb. His mother, Charlea Foster, said she brought him to the march because he had questions after watching protests broadcast by TV news stations.
“I had tried to shield him from it, but I felt like educating him,” Foster said. “I told him it was important for us to stand in solidarity against racism, injustice and brutality. People can peacefully protest. We can peacefully coexist.”
Foster said she has hope the world will change for the better, although she is concerned for Caleb’s safety as he grows up.
“I definitely fear Caleb going out into the world and having his skin color weaponized. He doesn’t understand it, he’s just learned color,” she said. “He’s just learning there’s a difference. I wanted to show him there is hope and we can peacefully coexist. We changed the sign because we’re speaking life in this situation.”
Multiple candidates for local elections spoke, including mayoral candidate Marc Whitfield, who called on the crowd to remember the march and what it meant, and Juawn Jackson, a candidate for Bibb County School Board. Jackson read off the names and quotes from black men and women killed by law enforcement officers across the U.S. over the past few years, including Ahmaud Arbery and George Floyd
“March 25, 2020, yet another black person was lynched,” he said as the crowd echoed a chant of “I can’t breathe” and “George Floyd.”
Marcher Bethany Kitchens said she attended the event because police have been killing black people for years, and it’s time for a change.
“We want America to realize the world is watching, and the world is tired of black people being oppressed, we’re tired of systemic racism, we’re tired of police brutality and we want a change,” she said.
Former educator and community organizer Stanley B. Stewart said he felt that George Floyd didn’t die in vain.
“This is the making of a new great generation,” he said. “America is the greatest country in the world, but that doesn’t me we don’t have issues we have to deal with each generation. Past generations have had issues and they’ve dealt with those issues together and finally overcome them, and I think we’re going to do the same.”
Bibb County Sheriff David Davis also spoke, praising the marchers for the protest and decrying violent actions by law enforcement officers across the country. The march was one of several rallies in Middle Georgia, including a walk in Warner Robins earlier in the day and a service Sunday at noon in Rosa Parks Square organized by local faith leaders.
Telegraph intern Keith Holmes Jr. contributed to this story.
This story was originally published June 2, 2020 at 8:23 PM.
