Hundreds of protesters gathered Saturday evening at Denver’s Manual High School in what organizers called an anti-Fourth of July celebration.
If “liberty and freedom for all” is to have any meaning, the phrase should be reflected in the actions and words of American citizens, and it’s not, organizer Peter Lubembela said. The words haven’t rung true since the country was founded by slave owners nearly 250 years ago, he said: Minorities, women and people of differing sexual orientations and identities all suffer under the yoke of a system rigged against them.
Saturday’s protest is the latest of many Denver protests since George Floyd died at the hands of police in Minneapolis more than a month ago, but it is one of the few that hasn’t been centered on the area around the Capitol and Civic Center. Manual is one of the oldest schools in the area and counts Denver Mayor Michael Hancock and former Mayor Wellington Webb among its graduates.
The demonstrators marched throughout the Wittier neighborhood before circling back to the high school. Dozens of police officers stood blocks away, lined up along 26th Avenue, keeping their distance from the crowd.
Throughout the evening participants spoke against immigrant detention, conditions on reservations, the marginalization of women and mass incarceration.
“It’s not about race against race or gender against gender. We need to come together,” Maya Padilla said. She said she’s part of the northern Arapaho tribe, and her ancestors were massacred here. The massacre continues, she said.
The demonstration included musical performances in honor of Elijah McClain, the violin-playing young Black man who died last year after a confrontation with Aurora police. A large protest was held in Aurora on Friday night to demand the firing of the officers involved in McClain’s death.
Brief musical break for a violinist to honor Elijah McClain who used to play violin for cats in animal shelters. I believe the song is The Cranberries’ Zombie. pic.twitter.com/OMphUMIj09
— Conrad Swanson (@Conrad_Swanson) July 5, 2020
Valerie Reives said she was ready to stop playing the viola until she attended a vigil last week for McClain. Saturday, she played with her bandmates and said she hoped her music translated to “Black Lives Matter.”
When Reives plays at other protests and demonstrations, she said, McClain’s spirit will be with her.
“We see these injustices and we are not going to let it stand,” Reives said. “This is not just two weeks of social media blowing up. This is a movement, not a moment.”
Saturday’s event was organized on Facebook by 10 for 10, a self-described “group of Black young men aimed on uniting their communities and Black men through community service initiatives.”
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