Black Lives Matter peaceful protests held Saturday in Freeburg, Mascoutah and Waterloo
After watching people in cities around the world take part in Black Lives Matter protests, 16-year-old Piper Lee wanted to organize one in her hometown of Mascoutah.
“As a person of color, more specifically a woman of color, I’ve seen a lot of injustices,” she said. “When the Michael Brown stuff happened, I was too young to understand it, but I’m older and now I want to make a difference.”
Lee, who will be a junior at Mascoutah High School in the fall, and a group of high school friends organized the protest held Saturday in Mascoutah.
Demonstrations over the killing of George Floyd in police custody and other racial injustices were held Saturday in Mascoutah, Waterloo and Freeburg in southwestern Illinois.
People started gathering at Scheve Park for the Mascoutah protest before noon. By noon, at least 200 people were there. They heard speeches and marched in town during the peaceful demonstration.
Both Lee and Mascoutah High School social studies teacher Jamilah Whiteside spoke to the crowd about systemic racism.
Whiteside, a Black woman, compared racism to an “evolving disease,” that has taken new forms throughout American history. In her comparison, she described Black people as a patient and racism as a cancer that evolves as it’s cured.
She said while there have been many “cures,” like the civil rights movement, the root of the problem still remains, and racism continues to evolve into new barriers for Black people, like systemic racism and police brutality.
“Racism has continued to evolve and we’ve never gotten to the root of the problem,” Whiteside said. “We’re tired of being sick and tired. We want change and change doesn’t take just me; it takes all of us.”
The recent announcement of plans for the protest on a Mascoutah community page drew a mixed bag of responses in advance of the event, some in support and some against.
Lee said Friday the most frustrating responses were rumors the protest could turn violent.
She said she and the other organizers worked with Mascoutah Police on a route through town throughout the planning process, even rescheduling the protest, which had been scheduled to take place originally last week.
She said some people in Mascoutah also say there isn’t a race issue in town, which she said is far from the truth. “There are some people who say Mascoutah doesn’t have race issues and some who are saying they’re worried we’re going to start a riot or loot,” Lee said. “That was discouraging.”
Lee said she encouraged doubters on social media to come and watch the demonstration. She said it would be an enlightening experience and help Mascoutah become a better place to live for everyone.
“If we want to make a change in the world, we have to start in our own towns,” she said.
The protest was peaceful as the crowd marched from the park to Mascoutah High School and back, chanting and singing. Many cars honked in support, and several residents gathered on porches with signs in support of the protest.
Waterloo protesters gather at courthouse
About 300 people met at the Monroe County Courthouse in Waterloo for a demonstration.
One of the protesters, Dori Gomes, grew up in Waterloo, but moved to Indianapolis, where she and her husband are raising their young, biracial family. She wanted to come back to her hometown to show support to the organizers.
“I love coming back here,” said Gomes, who is white. “I want to build a community that will love and support my kids the way it loved me.”
Talking to her oldest daughter, she reminded them that they were at the protest because “black lives matter. Daddy’s life matters.”
The organizers of the Waterloo protest started planning while working at the same restaurant. Their manager has been supportive, they said, and was slated to speak.
Before the protest, they met early to write the names of victims of police brutality in chalk on the sidewalks, noting which were minors when they were killed.
“So many of them weren’t prominent in the news,” said Maddie Smothers, 19. “We’re labeling which of them are children to show how messed up it is.”
One organizer teared up after writing down that Aiyana Stanley-Jones was 7 years old when Detroit police shot her in the head during a raid in 2010.
“These people aren’t here anymore, and we need people to recognize that,” said Caleb Rotz, 21, gesturing to the list with chalk-stained hands. “They’re not here because there’s a problem.”
Dr. Thomas Trice, a criminologist, spoke to the crowd outside the courthouse. He has had a distinguished career in law enforcement in Illinois.
Trice said he knew it would be hard, as a Black man in a field that was 90% white at the time. Eventually, Trice was recognized as the top law enforcement officer of the year in Illinois.
“This is not about the 90% of officers or people in the criminal justice system who do it the right way,” Trice said to applause from the crowd. “I’m not speaking for all Blacks. I’m not here for that purpose.”
Problems in policing often come down to policies, Trice said. By voting on morality, values and human rights, he said voters should hold elected officials just as accountable as police officers.
Around 3 p.m., Aniesa Ricketts of Waterloo took to the microphone for a second time. She called for protesters to take a knee or raise a fist for eight minutes and 46 seconds in honor of George Floyd. Floyd died after Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin kneeled on his neck for nearly nine minutes.
With temperatures approaching 90 degrees, many protesters had to kneel on signs or shift their weight on the hot concrete.
By 3:30 p.m., the speakers had wrapped, though many stayed with their signs to talk to friends in the shade.
One of the organizers, Rusty Green, said he was encouraged by the turnout.
“I feel like a lot of people here, a month ago, wouldn’t have done this,” he said. “It’s comforting to be with a lot of people, but a lot of it comes down to one on one interactions.”
Smaller crowd at Freeburg this week
More than 40 people took to the sidewalks Saturday evening in Freeburg to protest police brutality.
The group started at Freeburg Recreational Park and passed St. Joseph Catholic Church, Freeburg High School and the library. As the protesters made their way up Hill Street, a handful of people yelled back from their yard “all lives matter” and “blue lives matter.”
Last weekend, at least 300 people turned out to protest in Freeburg. While this weekend’s crowd was smaller, one organizer said a consistent presence important for the cause.
“We want the community to know this issue isn’t going to go away,” said Kate Hughes, 24, of Freeburg. “It’s something that should span more than one weekend.“
Several organizers reiterated how important it is to bring protests and activism to small towns. “We’re here to take people who are living in fear and get them out of that lifestyle,” said J.P. Bryant of Freeburg.
Paureeka Lloyd of Fairview Heights said she wants to stop seeing people killed by police.
“The smaller communities don’t have enough exposure,” she said. “I’m not originally from a small community. These communities are predominately white.”
A handful of the teenagers who attended were at their first protest ever, including Jolena Crowder, 16, of Freeburg. As a Hispanic member of the community, Crowder said she has known what it is like to feel prejudice since she was 8 years old. Her sign read “Hispanics for Black lives.”
She said she wanted “the feeling of a movement, and to be with a group of people I know will rally for people of color in the future.”
Second weekend of multiple protests
This is the second consecutive weekend of multiple protests around southwestern Illinois. Last weekend, Freeburg, O’Fallon, Collinsville, Granite City and Edwardsville were among the communities that saw peaceful protests. Belleville has had at least five, with another planned for Sunday in the Signal Hill community.
Demonstrations have occurred across America, in big cities and small towns, since the Memorial Day death of Floyd. Four police officers were fired and have since been charged in Floyd’s death.
This story was originally published June 13, 2020 at 12:29 PM.
