Peaceful protest planned for Saturday in Canonsburg
/Mark Marietta/for the Observer-Reporter
Protesters in front of the Washington County Courthouse on the morning of June 6 pay tribute to the memory of George Floyd by sitting in silence for eight minutes and forty-six seconds, the length of time Floyd was reportedly forcibly restrained by Minneapolis police.
/Mark Marietta/for the Observer-Reporter
Kurt Adkins, one of the event organizers, sits silently with protesters in front of the Washington County Courthouse as they remember George Floyd on the morning of June 6.
Mark Marietta/For the Observer-Reporter
Protest leader Ahmad Morris Walker and Washington police Chief Bob Wilson share a moment of celebration as the marchers return peacefully to the county courthouse June 6.
/Mark Marietta/for the Observer-Reporter
Protesters stand in peaceful solidarity at the close of the rally in front of the Washington County Courthouse June 6.
Encouraged by the momentum surrounding the Black Lives Matter movement and the hundreds of demonstrations that have been held across the country since George Floyd died in police custody on Memorial Day, a group of young adults from the Canonsburg and Washington areas have planned a peaceful protest on Saturday in Canonsburg.
“We’re just trying to continue to bring awareness to the social injustice that’s been happening not just recently, but for centuries,” said Ahmad Morris Walker, 22, of Canonsburg, one of the organizers of the protest. “For centuries, black people have been living in fear of the law. We have to be consistent with (the protests). In 1963, when they were doing sit-ins, it took days and months and years. It’s an uncomfortable thing to talk about, but you want to keep people talking about it and having these uncomfortable conversations until change is made.”
The Canonsburg protest follows other peaceful protests against racism, policing and inequality in the justice system that have taken place in the city of Washington and on the campus of California University of Pennsylvania in the weeks after the death of Floyd, a 46-year-old black man who died in Minneapolis when a white police officer knelt on Floyd’s neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds.
The rally will start at noon in the parking lot of the Canonsburg Borough Building. At about 1 p.m., a march is scheduled to proceed from Pike Street onto North Jefferson Avenue, Arch Street, and North Central Avenue before ending back at the borough building.
The protest should conclude around 1:30 p.m.
The parking lot will be closed, and there will be a rolling closure of the roads during the walk.
Walker said he and the organizers – Kurt Adkins, Kierra and Brianna King, Zhiere Patmon, Faith McClendon and Dara Thomas – contacted Canonsburg Mayor David Rhome and police Chief Alexander Coghill and have been working with the borough to ensure a safe and peaceful protest.
The protest will be similar to one held in front of the Washington County Courthouse on June 6 that drew an estimated 400 people, and will include speakers.
“I am planning on standing tall with this group, and any group that feels they need their words to be heard,” said Rhome. “If we as people would listen to each other, I believe we would have a better world to live in. My hope is that by working together, standing together, and talking together, we will start to bring love and kindness into our conversations, and it will be better for our communities.”
Walker was among those who helped organize the protest in the city of Washington, and said the response to the demonstration, and those that have taken place across the country, has been energizing.
“We see the change that’s happening and to actually be a part of it is amazing,” said Walker, a Canon-McMillan High School graduate who is scheduled to graduate from Slippery Rock University this fall with a bachelor’s degree in public health. “It’s actually weird. My friends and I talk about this all the time – we compare it to the things we learned about in textbooks in school. It’s encouraging, but it’s sad that we have to do this in 2020, that we’re still fighting for equality. But we’re taking up the mantle. It’s empowering.”