Pullman hosted its second Black Lives Matter (BLM) solidarity march Friday, nearly two weeks after its first organized protest in the wake of George Floyd’s death.
Demonstrators began at Washington State University’s (WSU) Martin Stadium, marched along Main Street and finished at the parking lot shared by the police department and city hall, where the crowd of roughly 600 people listened to distinguished speakers and activists.
“Black Lives Matter has put out a call to make this Friday a national day of protest, and we are answering that call,” the event’s Facebook page said.
Organized by Jason Kennedy, Samantha Fulgham, Ivy Ndambuki and Joe Hedges, the event utilized a PA system and an American Sign Language interpreter.
Before the march began, 502 people responded as “interested” in the event and 198 responded as “going,” to the event according to the event’s Facebook page.
One attendee, Linda Agyen, said she was in tears for most of the event.
“Today, I’m very impressed. This has actually given me hope that things are going to change,” Agyen said. “I’ve been in this country for over 30 years, but every day I walk the streets and people ask me ‘Where are you from,’ and if I say ‘D.C.,’ they ask me, ‘No, where are you actually from?’ I always thought, ‘I’ve probably been here longer than you.’”
The protest is one of many demonstrations erupting across the U.S. in response to the death of George Floyd, a Black man, at the hands of white former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin. Chauvin was captured on video pressing his knee into Floyd’s neck for eight minutes and 46 seconds, where Floyd could be heard pleading “I can’t breathe,” repeatedly before eventually becoming unresponsive.
The moment sparked public outcry, protests and unrest across the globe.
Similar peaceful demonstrations in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement have taken place throughout Idaho, including multiple protests in Moscow, Pullman and Lewiston, with more on the docket.
Fulgham said the diverse group of organizers wanted to put out a cohesive message. Fulgham also helped organize Pullman’s first BLM protest on May 31.
“We wanted a WSU focus with this one,” Fulgham said. “We reached out to quite a few different organizations and people in the community that we knew about. We reached out to the WSU Black Student Union and the WSU School of Languages, Culture and Race to try to get some diverse speakers.”
WSU Dean of Students Jill Creighton was one of the community members invited to speak at the event.
“Not all incidents of racism are based in physical violence and in fact most are not. Much of what happens in Pullman is rooted in micro-aggressions and in the cultural identity that defaults to whiteness as the norm. Racism happens in our own community, and as a community we have work to do,” Creighton said. “Please stop forcing marginalized people to make a spectacle of our pain in order to be heard.”
Fulgham said Jeremiah Akin, who donated his PA system and speakers for use at Moscow’s vigil June 3, contributed his equipment and coordinated the audio for this protest as well.
“I spend a lot of time playing music at different venues, so I have the equipment,” Akin said. “But this is a better cause, to me, than any other job, so I was happy to do it.”
Kennedy, who worked with Fulgham on the May 31 Pullman protest, spoke at length during Friday’s event, where he detailed first-hand incidents of racism.
“I love camping. I get asked every year, ‘do I want to go camping?’ I love camping. But I haven’t gone camping since I was 22 years old,” Kennedy said. “The last time I went camping, some guys yelling racial slurs chased me in the middle of the night. I didn’t have a flashlight, so I just started running. I was scared for my life. I jumped in the bushes and laid there for about 15 minutes as they walked by looking for me because they were drunk, they were racists and I happened to be there. That’s why I’m upset. That’s why I’m uncomfortable.”
Angela Palermo can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @apalermooo