By Debbie Hall
Between 250 and 300 people gathered in Stuart Sunday to remember George Floyd and countless other African Americans who, speakers said, met their demise at the hands of police brutality.
Floyd’s death was among the most recent to garner national attention after a May 25 video showed a white police officer kneeling on Floyd’s neck for eight minutes and 46 seconds while ignoring repeated pleas for air until first responders arrived at the scene. Floyd was unresponsive when he was placed on a stretcher.
Four Minnesota police officers were fired the day after Floyd died. Riots and protests broke out in Minneapolis and other areas, calling on the arrest of the officers involved. Derek Chauvin, the primary officer involved in the incident, was arrested on May 29. The remaining former officers were charged last week.
The video of the incident with Floyd has helped raise awareness about racial tensions between minority groups and law enforcement, prompting memorial events in several communities, speakers said.
“To have something like this in Patrick County, Virginia, is monumental. To be part of the generation that brought about something like this is monumental,” Melodie Ferguson said as the event got underway.
“Each and every single one of you, your life matters. It doesn’t matter if you’re black, white, whatever creed, religion you are, your life matters. But the purpose of this event is to let you know that our black lives also matter,” said Ferguson, who was among the organizers of the memorial that included her father, the Rev. J. Leroy Wimbush, pastor of Fresh Harvest Christian Church, among the speakers.
The memorial was “an awesome occasion” and a “historical event. One worth coming together and fighting for,” the Rev. Wimbush said, adding that he is filled with “great concern and outrage as a black man living in America regarding the injustice that the men and women of color experience each and every day. We must let the world know that those who are appointed to protect and serve us should be held accountable for their disgusting behavior, and that police brutality in America is something we will no longer accept.”
Noting that all men and women are created equal, Wimbush said “the people in the world today do not honor these words. My brothers and sisters, we are living in a time where men and women of color are simply asking to matter, to be judged not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”
He added that also among those requests are living in a world where “oppressors are held responsible for their actions toward the black community without having it filmed to get conviction.”
Wimbush also noted that Ahmaud Arbery, an African American man in Georgia, who on Feb. 23 was killed when he was out jogging, was unarmed. Wimbush said a viral video prompted the arrests of three white men in connection with that case.
to promote unity and working together to address civil issues.
He noted that Will Smith has been quoted as saying “racism isn’t getting worse, it’s getting filmed.” That also applied in the deaths of Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, Breonna Taylor and many others who speakers said died without justice.
Elder Naomi Hodge-Muse, assistant pastor at Grace Presbyterian Church in Martinsville and president of the Martinsville chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and the Rev. Richard Spencer, also of Henry County, were among speakers during the memorial.
“It is harvest time,” Muse said, after recounting the parable of the tares (weeds) and the wheat. “It is time to tear up the tares.”
She noted that when Floyd was heard in the video saying, “‘Momma, momma, they killing me,’ mommas woke up. Mommas woke up. Wake up America. We need to live up to our creed.”
Muse said the country must work together to “pull up the tares of systematic racism. When I was coming up, the police were called peace officers. Nobody thought badly of Alfred Steagall,” a law enforcement officer in the Fieldale community of Henry County.
But, Muse said that many have an agenda “to cause a race war. This is nothing but the devil. Nothing but the devil.”
Muse said adults must talk to school officials about the disparity in expulsions. She added that her research shows African American students are expelled at a 70 percent or higher rate than their white counterparts.
Education, in the form of vocational/technical training, also is important, Muse said, adding that people are “more prone to building a jail than a Vo-Tech center.”
She encouraged young people to continue “standing together,” and to speak out when they see wrongdoing. “If you see it, call it out. We have to value each child so that no child” feels invaluable. “We are not disposable people,” Muse said.
Spencer said “silence is violence. We have to stand up and be counted. We, as a people of color, are demanding to be treated equally. It’s time for change. Change should be a fundamental break from the past.”
He said “we are all brothers and sisters in God’s sight. It’s time to let the world know ‘You aren’t going to tread on us, because we are somebody.’ Too long have we been racially profiled by law enforcement. I implore you to let your voice be heard, not by violence but by peaceful” protests.
“I sympathize, but I don’t agree with, the violence that’s going on in this country. We must demand justice when we are wronged. We must speak up,” Spencer said, and added that the video of Floyd “sticks with me.”
He noted that he had not seen a grown man cry before, nor had he seen a grown man die before. “We have to demand change from the White House to our house.”
Many participants ‘took a knee’ for the 8-minutes and 46 seconds to represent the amount of time Floyd was pinned to the ground.
“Are your knees hurting? Are you hot? How do you think he felt,“ Ferguson asked as the time expired. Shortly after, she led the crowd from Main Street to the L-O-V-E sign at the Blue Ridge Library.
“Your silence is disrespectful. Your silence is complicity. Your silence is racism. It’s time to speak up, and it’s time for a change,” Ferguson said.
She encouraged the crowd to share their thoughts and to not let their voices be silenced. She also urged the crowd not to let the movement die, but to make sure the voices of the African American community are heard on Election Day.
The Patrick County Sheriff’s Department provided security and traffic management during the event. Walmart and other local businesses donated water and supplies. Legal observers were also on-site to ensure no rights were infringed upon.
(Cory L. Higgs contributed to this report.)
