Subscribe to our free, daily publication for all your local news.
A Black Lives Matter Peace Walk and Rally is planned for Sunday, June 14 at 3 p.m.
Co-organizer Emily Gilstrap said the peaceful rally is meant “to support an end to systemic racism and police brutality.” She is partnering with Catherine Doucet who created the event with a social media post that got a big response.
It was the death of George Floyd on May 25, a black man living in Minneapolis, which re-lit the Black Lives Matter movement, launched a few years ago after a series of videos captured unjust killings of people of color.
A video showed Floyd dying on the street with police officer Derek Chauvin appearing to press his knee against Floyd’s neck for almost nine minutes. Floyd is heard in the video repeatedly saying he couldn’t breathe and calling for his mother.
Floyd was under arrest for allegedly using a counterfeit $20 bill, according to reports.
Chauvin has since been charged with with second- and third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter, and the other three police officers who were on the scene are charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder and aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter.
Rally attendees will gather at 3 p.m. on the Common with masks, signs, and social distance where they will hear a call to action and learn specific ways to affect real change within the community and beyond.
Longtime educator, civil rights activist and resident of Littleton, Roland A. Gibson, will be an honored guest speaker. At 4 p.m. an 8 minute and 46 second moment of silence will honor George Floyd “and the many black lives lost to systemic racism,” Gilstrap stated.
“This will be followed by a short peace walk looping to Abbot School and back,” she added.
The rally is co-sponsored by Indivisible Westford and First Parish Church United.
