About one-hundred young people took to the streets in Danville Saturday evening for a ‘Black Lives Matter’ march….
{(Chanting: ”Black lives matter! Black lives matter! Black lives matter!”}
That’s how it sounded as the group headed down Vermilion Street in Danville’s downtown area. Along the way they had stopped – briefly sitting down and blocking the intersections of Vermilion and Fairchild along with Vermilion and Williams Streets to listen to speakers.
Eighteen-year-old John Ward explained the event…..
{”Today we took a peaceful march and protest around Danville, Illinois due to the fact that there’s a lot of police brutality toward Black people in America. We just want it to be known we’re protesting to help get awareness out sir,” said Ward.}
Ward’s cousin, Anaiya Robinson is glad the march was peaceful….
{”I love the fact that the younger generation is trying to go about it peacefully. And I know that it might be difficult with a lot of emotions going on,” said Robinson during an interview with VermilionCountyFirst.com News. ”The more we do it, hopefully we can just keep getting the message out and make sure everything is just peaceful.”}
(Participants in the march block the intersection of Vermilion and Williams Streets briefly to listen to speakers. They had a Danville Police escort.)
News Director Bill Pickett had a question for Ward….
{Pickett: ”If you had a message that you could put out to other people about this kind of a gathering – what would that be?”
Ward: ”That it’s not going to stop until everyone’s treated equally sir.”}
(Some marchers want Danville Police to ”take a knee.” They were disappointed when police refused.)
Although the event was peaceful, there was a lot of yelling from marchers in front of the Rita B. Garman Vermilion County Courthouse as they demanded Danville Police ”Take a knee!” Some officers told the youth they respect their right to demonstrate. And officers hung around to talk to the youth even when some heavy rain developed.
