Black Lives Matter March Brings Out 'Allies' In Mt. Greenwood

CHICAGO — Protestors marched along 111th Street in the city's Mount Greenwood neighborhood Saturday to promote the Black Lives Matter movement in the wake of the police-related death of George Floyd in Minneapolis last month. Participants have said about 150 people marched between Kedzie Avenue and Cicero Avenue in Mount Greenwood and Oak Lawn.

"It was a beautiful thing," said Dawn Liddicoatt, a Beverly neighborhood artist who participated in the protest. "I am greatly encouraged by the young people leading these anti-racist protests all over the city and all over the country. It gives me some hope for a better future."

The protest was organized by a newly formed group called "Beyond the Borders Chicago." Saturday's event was the group's first organized protest.

The group formed in recent days by Janet Martin and Jennifer Martin, two sisters from Orland Park. It was created under the umbrella of the "Beauty and Brains" non-profit that since 2018 has provided educational resources and networking opportunities to African-American women in college.

The Martin sisters say their goal is to hold marches in areas outside intercity Chicago, specifically in neighborhoods that are predominantly white.

Mount Greenwood, Jennifer Martin said, is among the places where "our message needed to be heard the most." Doug Posely, a Morehouse College student, helped the sisters organize their first protest on Saturday.

"Having marches in these neighborhoods, where you see a few residents stuck in their ways, allows us to give a space for allies to step forward and hold their neighbors accountable," Jennifer Martin said.

Janet Martin said the Mount Greenwood protest "turned out pretty amazing."

"I didn't know what to expect, but there were so many Mount Greenwood residents marching with us, and standing with us in support," she said.

About 150 marchers chanted and held signs between Kedzie and Cicero, with a portion of the protest filmed here:

Liddicoatt said that while there were a number of counterprotestors who were agitating the group with "ignorance," there were also several Mount Greenwood neighborhood residents who came out to support the movement.

"A number of them in different places along 111th St holding Black Lives Matter signs, chanting Black Lives Matter with us, a number giving us thumbs up, raising power fists, nodding, clapping for us," Liddicoatt said. "One woman thanked us for marching in her neighborhood. She was holding a Black Lives Matter sign.

"I met a young woman who ran out of her house without her shoes to join the march. She then went back, got her shoes, and marched with us until the end. I met a young couple who've lived in Mt. Greenwood for 13 years. They came out and marched with us, pushing a stroller. They said they didn't know about the area when they moved in. They also said things are changing there, and that there are more anti-racists than racists there now."

Marchers spent more than eight minutes (the exact amount of time Floyd was pinned to the group as he died in Minneapolis) kneeling near the corner of 111th and Kedzie. It was also near the site where Joshua Beal was shot and killed by Chicago police in 2016.

During this part of the protest, one man Liddicoatt described as "an obnoxious loudmouth" began "badgering" the protestors during what was design to be a time of silence in memory of Floyd.

It was one of a few moments in which tensions were heightened by the two groups with opposing viewpoints. Here's another confrontation of which one protestor captured video:

There was a protest in Mt. Greenwood yesterday (a white neighborhood on the far southside of Chicago where a bunch of cops live). Hostile white people stood on the sidewalk shouting Blue Lives Matter and other vile shit. These are the people who are defending the cops. #DefundCPD pic.twitter.com/V9Px6O8XAN
— Bridget (@bridgeeetgreens) June 14, 2020

There was another situation that required police to intervene near the Chicago High School for Agricultural Science as captured in the video posted above to YouTube. Chicago police said no arrests were made during the protest.

The Martin sisters said the Beal incident is one of the reasons Mount Greenwood was picked for the site of their first protest.

Beyond the Borders' next protest will be in Tinley Park later this month, the Martin sisters said.