Faith Quinnea held a bullhorn and talked with friends Friday afternoon, as demonstrators gathered at Central High School and prepared to march into downtown Providence.
“Whatever passion comes from in my mind,” she said, “I’m going to say it through this bullhorn, and the crowd’s going to be right with me.”
Quinnea, a junior at Central, helped organize the march from the city’s West End to join thousands more demonstrators at the State House Friday. She said she was motivated to act because of the killing of George Floyd in police custody last month.
“It greatly impacted me to plan this protest,” Quinnea said, “because no life deserves to be taken by the color of their skin, something they can’t control. And I felt like that was very wrong.”
She said she also felt moved to help organize the march because she wants to show people what youth are capable of.
“They don’t always expect us to have a voice in current events,” she said. “And to see that we came out to organize this, it shows that the youth do have hope. We will be the change.”
Nearby, Michael Murray, of Pawtucket, walked through the crowd, handing out “Black Lives Matter” posters. He wore a black shirt that had the words “I CAN’T BREATHE” on the front.
“It’s extremely important,” Murray said of the protest. “As a black man in America, it’s different just to wake up and walk out of the door everyday.”
He added, “I face prejudice almost everyday.”
Looking around at the crowd of several hundred people that had gathered at Central High by late afternoon, Murray said he was grateful to see such a diverse group of protesters.
In the weeks since George Floyd’s killing, Murray said, he thinks there’s been a tipping point in America on the issue of police violence against African Amercians.
“Black people, we’ve always been upset,” he said. “We’ve always had this type of energy. But to feel it from everybody else. Look out here today. It’s people from all races, colors, creeds, and genders. And that right there speaks volumes, and we appreciate it. It’s just not our voice no more. It’s everybody. This is huge.”
Protesters who started off at Central High converged with demonstrators already in Kennedy Plaza and marched from there to the State House for the main rally.
As thousands gathered on the State House lawn, Dennis Bailer walked the grass holding a sign that read, “THIS COUNTRY WAS BUILT ON LIES & MURDER.”
Bailer, who jokingly pulled down his cloth mask to show his grey facial hair, said this was the first protest he’d ever attended.
“It was important this time to show up,” he said. “Today, I had to do it. There was no doubt about it.”
Bailer, a former drug addict who now works as an overdose prevention director, said he grew up in the 1960s and 1970s in Rhode Island and experienced police brutality throughout his life.
“I’ve been choked by the police. I’ve been punched by the police. I’ve been smacked by the police,” he said. “Hey, I wasn’t the greatest citizen at the time. But I didn’t deserve to be treated like that. I found myself in situations where I had to de-escalate the situation. They’re the professionals, right? But I got to de-escalate. What is that?”
Ailton Barbosa, of Lincoln, was also at his first racial justice protest. He said he was concerned about attending because of the coronavirus pandemic but felt he couldn’t stay home.
“I’ve donated. I’ve done other things,” he said. “But at the last minute, I decided to come and just try to be safe but yet still support, show support for the cause.”
Barbosa, a Cape Verdean American, spoke of the fear of driving in a car and seeing a police vehicle.
“Your body trembles,” he said. “The number one thing is to show we need to change that. If you want respect, you need to give respect.”
As some protesters began to leave the State House grounds Friday, Rothwell Young, of Providence, played with his one-year-old son in the grass, off to the side. Young called the protest “a big day for my people” and said his hope is his son won’t have to grow up with the same difficulties he’s faced.
“Racial profiling is just something that goes on everyday,” Young said. “When it comes down to it, I just want everybody to treat each other the same.”
He added, “I don’t want him to grow up in a world where he feels like he has to watch himself, and watch his steps, and be worried about his life all the time.”
Alex Nunes can be reached at anunes@thepublicsradio.org.
