Black activists call for justice, defunding police

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With the words “Black Lives Matter” colorfully painted underfoot, hundreds of people marched down Water Street June 19, chanting, cheering and clapping in celebration of Juneteenth.

Juneteenth, also known as Freedom Day, is an American holiday that finds its roots in Texas, where enslaved people in the city of Galveston were finally informed of their freedom June 19, 1865 — more than two years after President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation.

The crowd on Friday made history, as it was the first time Port Townsend has celebrated this holiday as a community. And after months of isolation due to the coronavirus and weeks of growing unrest over the killing of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and other Black and Indigenous people at the hands of police, hundreds of people of all ages came to Pope Marine Park to celebrate Black and Indigenous lives, to stand up for the oppressed, and to remember the lives lost to police violence.

“This is a day to celebrate our lives, to celebrate our freedom,” said Grace Love, a Black activist, artist and local business owner who spoke from the covered wooden dock at Pope Marine Park.

The crowd listened in silence as Love and others  shared their own personal stories and their hopes for the future.

“On May 29, I told my friends on Facebook I was going to go stand on Sims Way and hold a sign that says ‘I Can’t Breathe’ for George Floyd,” said Sean Vinson, who with this action sparked the creation of a new Black Lives Matter chapter in Jefferson County.

“What that day of accidental activism has turned into, I was never expecting,” he said. “But here we are.”

Vinson celebrated the change that has already occurred in the community. From the moment he decided to hold a sign on Sims Way, more and more protests and rallies have been held across the county. The city council has created a committee to look at policing in Port Townsend. And a group of Black, Indigenous and people of color took part in painting Water Street with the “Black Lives Matter” street art.

Vinson also called out the names of Black-owned businesses in Port Townsend and Jefferson County, and encouraged people to invest in and celebrate these community members.

But while the Freedom March was a celebration, it was also saturated with heavy emotion: sadness, shock, and anger over hundreds of years of oppression.

Speaking from the dock, activist and artist Paris Jade read the last words of Black people who have been killed by police.

As she read the final words of George Floyd, who died when a police officer kneeled on his neck for more than eight minutes, speakers on stage wiped at tears while others shook with silent sorrow.

“Please, I can’t breathe,” Jade said as she read Floyd’s last words.

“Mama. Mama.”

In the crowd, there were audible sobs.

For the many white allies who sat listening, the discomfort was a necessary part of the otherwise celebratory event because the march was not just a walk down the street — it was a call to action. A painted mural is not enough. And performative allyship, Jade said, does not stop people from being killed.

In his speech, Vinson called out the action he hopes to see in Jefferson County in the near future.

“We are committed to building safe communities and equitable lives for all Black and Indigenous people in Jefferson County,” he said. “We want to see money divested from police and invested back into our community and social programs.”

This does not mean the end of the police department, he added.
“We just don’t see the need for armed police in every emergency response situation,” Vinson said. “These are our core goals and values, and the change we will bring to this county.”

But to accomplish these goals, the group of activists needs the support of the hundreds of people who attended the march.

Both Jade and Vinson emphasized when the march is over, the work does not end.

“A lot of you are waking up to discover the American dream is a nightmare,” Jade said, speaking specifically to the white people in the crowd. “This isn’t where it ends. There’s still so much work to be done.”