Diverse demonstrations continue social justice fight on Father’s Day

Black men gathered to reflect on their struggles and celebrate their identity on Father’s Day, while a diverse, young crowd of activists made impassioned pleas for social justice Sunday afternoon as charged demonstrations continued across the city.

Leonard Lee, a community activist, led over 50 men, young and old and donning “I am a man” white T-shirts, at the Black Men’s March and Healing Rally at noon from Malcolm X Park to Franklin Park. Despite severe heat, marchers chanted to the beat of drums while walking down Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard alongside traffic.

“I want people to understand, that the person that’s being affected the most needs that type of support,” Lee told the Herald. “People march through our neighborhoods but they’re still afraid of us. They’re still afraid of black men. There’s no need to be afraid of black men.”

Al Peeples, 31, marched with his 11-year-old son also donning the march’s T-shirt.

“It takes a community to raise a child,” Peeples said of the importance of gathering on Father’s Day.

Peeples said the monthlong protests since George Floyd’s death under the knee of a Minneapolis Police officer are signalling that changes are going to be made.

“These peaceful protesters are proving the point that we can all do it together,” he said.

Hours later, a crowd of over 100 people, holding signs amid a light rainfall in the heat joined in calls to defund police departments. Cars driving nearby on Blue Hill Avenue honked their horns between red light stops.

Among the crowd attending the Sunday afternoon rally were families with young children, passersby and suburban residents.

“This is Dorchester,” Phoenix Printemps, 30, of Mattapan said in response to a barrage of car horns sounding behind her. “Every single day, every single day there are so many people who come across who don’t understand what this side is going through from the other side.”

Printemps, acting director of the Boston Area Youth Organizers Project, donned a Black Lives Matter shirt and led chants including “No good cops in a racist system.”

“Don’t just think I went to that rally so I’m good,” Printemps urged attendees. “Don’t think well I got black friends so I’m good. It’s more than that.”

Protests are scheduled to continue almost daily through the coming week, with numerous events happening in the city and surrounding communities.

 

 

 

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/3epyWVV