CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The chants of “Black Lives Matter,” “No Justice, No Peace,” “George Floyd,” and “I Can’t Breathe” echoed through downtown Charleston on Sunday.
Hundreds of people gathered for peaceful protesting of social injustice, police brutality and the death of George Floyd outside of Charleston City Hall and the Charleston Police Department.
Floyd’s death, under police custody in Minneapolis, Minnesota, has been protested all over the country in recent days. The police officer who had his knee on Floyd’s neck has been charged with murder.
“We are better than this. The man called for his mother,” an African-American woman said on the steps of City Hall of Floyd’s death.
“He wasn’t an alien, he was a person. How do you think his mother feels? How do you think his family feels?”
She spokes those words alongside dozens of African-American women in just one of many that took to speak and express emotions.
An African-American father from Dunbar spoke on behalf of his family and how he is scared to go out and do normal activities.
“I can’t go out here and do things I normally want to do. I’m afraid that if I say the wrong thing or do the wrong thing that I will have police on me. You just never know what is going to happen,” he said.
“I am scared for my children, I am scared for my brothers, I am scared for my sisters, my nieces and nephews. I am shaking right now.”
The crowd of a few hundred consisted of all ethnicities, gender and ages.
A woman identified as Cassidy, a white female from Boone County told MetroNews white people have privilege and need to speak up on injustices towards the African-American community.
“I’m a white person. I have privilege and it would be selfish of me to not speak on this because I can. If I can, why shouldn’t I,” she said.
A white female protestor with her agreed.
“I just think that anybody with privilege in times of oppression, not to do something about it is just a gross, selfish misuse of their privilege,” she said to MetroNews.
“Solidarity is everything. If enough people try to raise their voice, eventually somebody is going to be heard.”
Charleston’s protest joins the list of other peaceful protests in the Mountain State including two protests in Huntington, one at Ritter Park and a second one at Pullman Square, Morgantown on WVU’s downtown campus, and through the streets of Fairmont.
The protest at City Hall came hours after violent protests broke out in dozens of cities across the country Saturday night.
The group in Charleston marched through the streets of downtown with no issues, along Virginia, Court, Laidley, and Lee.
Story by Jake Flatley
Sights and signs from the protest in Charleston, WV 📸: pic.twitter.com/KuYYlZcMI7
— Jake Flatley (@JakeFlatley) May 31, 2020