Loganville Black Lives Matter Demonstration Mixes Protest, Prayer

LOGANVILLE, GA — Wednesday’s demonstration at Loganville City Hall for George Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery showed how small-town Georgia responds to Black Lives Matter: It was part protest, part prayer meeting and part walkathon.

With local police nearby directing traffic, several hundred people joined in the hour-long peaceful protest, organized by Kylee Blair-Griffith, Lajalan Stephens and Max Ogletree, all recent graduates of Loganville-area high schools. The group of demonstrators was racially mixed, with some wearing face masks, some not.

Organizers originally had planned to march from the lawn on Main Street to the Loganville Police Department, which would have placed them on U.S. 78 during afternoon rush hour. Loganville Mayor Rey Martinez invited them instead to use the athletic field and track next to Loganville City Hall, which is housed in a former school building.

“I said let’s keep it peaceful and try not to get anybody hurt, so I recommended this place,” Martinez said Wednesday to Patch. “It worked out great.”

The demonstrators started by walking laps around the track to honor Arbery, an African-American jogger who investigators say was killed in south Georgia by three white men. With marchers of all ages participating — some even pushing strollers — it felt like nothing so much as a charity walkathon.

Local leaders spotted walking included Martinez as well as Georgia Reps. Tom Kirby and Donna McLeod. “It’s important for us to stand up,” McLeod said to Patch. “It’s been a long time coming.”

Demonstrators then laid stomach down on the field and chanted “I can’t breathe” to honor Floyd, who died in Minneapolis while in police custody as an officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes.

The demonstration ended with much of the crowd kneeling mid-field in a circle, led in prayer by local pastors invited by Martinez. When Dustin Wilbanks of The Cross Loganville declared that recent racial problems were “not a skin problem, but a sin problem,” the crowd responded with choruses of amens.

“It was amazing to see this many people come out, and to be able to see the heart that people have for change,” Wilbanks said to Patch after the demonstration. “There are a lot of protests that turn into things that are not really honoring anything other than themselves. This one was done right.”

A second demonstration in Loganville is planned for 1 p.m. Saturday.

OTHER NEWS:

• GOP House Candidate Warns Antifa ‘Stay The Hell’ Out Of NW GA
• Matt Ryan Creates GoFundMe To Support Atlanta's Black Community
• More Than 1 Million Early Voters Cast Ballots In Georgia
• More JCPenney Stores Closing, 7 In Georgia To Shut Down