Black Lives Matter supporters held a vigil Saturday morning along Kenilworth in the latest local demonstration against racial inequality and police brutality.

About 40 people parked at Olympia Stadium around 9 a.m. and gathered peacefully on the Kenilworth Parkway medians between Perkins Road Community Park and Pennington Biomedical Research Center.

They held signs reading "Black Lives Matter - South Baton Rouge" and waved energetically at cars that honked in approval as they passed. The occasional vehicle slowed near the median, with occupants jeering or shouting profanities, but the response was positive from most passersby.

Kyle Crane, who helped organize the protest, said that those gathered have "no agendaother than love and support for everybody."

"Equality and justice are two founding factors in this country," Crane said. "We live in a time when those arent equal across the playing field for everybody."

Crane said a group of people who live in the Kenilworth, Magnolia Woods and Walden subdivisions decided they wanted to show support for the Black Lives Matter movement in South Baton Rouge. They instructed everyone to arrive in face masks and to socially distance along the median to keep each other safe from the coronavirus.

It was the latest in a number of rallies and protests that have been held across the city in the weeks following George Floyd's death. Floyd was a Black man who died after a White Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for nearly eight minutes. Video footage of his death ignited civil unrest across the country.

Although several protesters were detained and then released in a Wednesday demonstration at Baton Rouge Police Headquarters, the gatherings have been largely peaceful in East Baton Rouge and adjoining parishes.

Unlike other demonstrations in recent weeks, this vigil included many children, older adults and seniors.

Chester Burnett, 67, attended the protest with his wife, Donna.

"Ive seen a lot of injustice," said Burnett. "We have to come together and make this work. Blacks cant do it by themselves. Whites cant do it by themselves. This is for our country. Were actually fighting for our country, and the soul of our country, right now. It cant wait."

Donna Burnett added that systemic racism has been going on "for way too long."

"It has become the norm and thats not acceptable," she said. "Black lives matter today more than ever. We have to be a voice for the change."

Her friend, Melissa Herbert, said she was there to show up not just for her son, who she worries could be hurt by law enforcement violence for being Black, but for all children who could be affected.

"Its someones life," Herbert said. "Its something thats precious. Thats God-given, and no one has the right to take it."

In another departure from other area protests, there were no slogans shouted or names recited of people who died in police brutality incidents. Soft music played from beneath a pop-up tent; under another, participants were urged to take a fresh doughnut and a sign.

The majority of protesters who showed up were White, in contrast to more diverse gatherings across the parish. Organizers mentioned many people who showed up had likely never attended any kind of activist demonstration before.

"I think that, as a White person, many of us just dont understand until we open ourselves up to whats going on,"said protester Denise Crowe. "Im hoping that just having a dialogue about it is going to make a difference."

Eighty-year-old Marian Cassidy, also White, attended the vigil with both a Black Lives Matter face mask and sign. She accompanied her son, daughter-in-law and three young grandchildren, one of whom rushed up to hug her around the knees as she explained why she decided to show up that day.

"What weve experienced lately is gut-wrenching in terms of human decency." she said. "Its so hard to explain. Its just right to be here, because this is right."

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Black Lives Matter vigil held on Kenilworth Parkway: "We have to be a voice for change" - The Advocate