A seven-day march from Ferguson, Missouri, to Jefferson City organized by the NAACP ended Friday with a demonstration at the state Capitol.
Protestors arrived in Jefferson City right on schedule Friday afternoon, marching down Monroe Street to Capitol Avenue, and straight into the State Capitol where they filled up the rotunda. After a peaceful protest with speakers from the NAACP, as well as the family of Michael Brown, a group of protestors left the statehouse and made their way around the capitol city.
They marched down the middle of the street until police presence forced them to get on the sidewalks, chanting “No Justice, No Peace,” and “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot,” and yelling across the street to police officers. A few members of the group had a brief “die-in” in the middle of a crosswalk, until police forced them to get off the wet ground.
21-year-old Jackie is from Ferguson.
“We’re not people who read about the story, we lived the story,” Jackie said. “We’re not saying, “Oh, can we please have justice?” We’re saying, “Forget you, we’re going to get justice.”
Jackie said she did not join the march from Ferguson to St. Louis.
“We can’t march for 130 miles and say that, “Oh, we fought for justice,” she said. “You just walked through it! We live it every day. You might walk through it for 139 miles but, I live it every day of my life. And don’t sit and expect a speech to change a nation."
Jermell Hasson, also from Ferguson, says the solution is for everyone to come together.
“We are a whole, no matter what creed, no matter what ethnicity you are, we are all the people,” Hasson said. “They don’t just do it to African Americans, they do it to everyone that’s in the united states of America.”
That was a common theme amongst the protesters: the belief that this issue goes beyond black and white.
“This is for all people,” Jackie said. “We should fight for everybody. So if a black cop was to kill a white kid, that wouldn’t be important? That’s what you all are making it seem like. If you pick up that gun and you shoot someone unjustly, it does not matter, who, what race you are.”
Among the protestors in Jefferson City was a couple from Kansas City, Missouri, with their 11 and 15-year-old sons. Despite the rain and cold, they joined the group that marched around the capitol city following the peaceful protest held inside.
11-year-old Travion said he was surprised by what he experienced.
“I didn’t think that black peoples’ life was this hard,” Travion said. “ I knew slavery was hard but I didn’t think it was like, they had to like actually be aggressive with the cops.”
Travion’s father, Darrian Davis, said he brought his son along so that he could see what’s
happening for himself. Darrian’s girlfriend, Auset Noir, agreed.
“I think it’s important for the youth and even the youngest of the youth to see these types of movements and be involved,” Noir said. “It helps them to understand where when I pass this baton onto you, this is what I expect.”
Davis said they need to follow the revolutionary tactics of the Civil Rights movement.
“You had old people, walking all day long and they had jobs and they marched day after day after day, and the kids too,” Davis said. “We ought to be in the streets right now. We ought to be in the streets right now. And that’s how I feel.”
Davis said he was disappointed in how the protest turned out.
“I thought there would be a lot more support out here,” Davis said. “I thought there would be a lot more people out here upset. I thought the government would show up. It’s bittersweet. It’s good to see people are passionate about it but I was disappointed with the disorganization of the youth.”
Noir’s son, Jacques Bobo, said being with the protestors changed his opinion on the government and police.
The family says they came out to support not just Ferguson, but anyone in the nation who has experienced injustice.
