BEVERLY The original plan was to march from Beverly to Marblehead to protest the stealing of Black Lives Matter flags in those two communities. The threat of thunderstorms nixed that idea, but about 75 people still found a way to get their point across on Tuesday.

Holding signs and chanting Black Lives Matter, the crowd gathered in the heat for nearly two hours during a rally outside Beverly City Hall as several speakers implored North Shore residents to support the growing movement for racial justice.

We came here to send a message here on the North Shore that racism, that white supremacism, that bigotry will no longer be accepted nor ignored here on the North Shore, said the Rev. Andre Bennett, the main speaker at the event. We will no longer be complicit here on the North Shore. Beverly, we refuse to be silenced.

Organizers had intended to stage a seven-mile march from Beverly City Hall to the Unitarian Universalist Church in Marblehead to show solidarity in wake of recent acts of thefts and vandalism to Black Lives Matter banners on the North Shore. Instead, the event remained at Beverly City Hall, where six speakers took turns addressing the crowd.

Several of the speakers pointed out inequities in the country regarding the treatment of Black people, from incidences of police brutality to disparities in income between Black and white people.Salem resident Hawa Hamidou, a student organizer from Solidarity North Shore, said the North Shore is an area segregated by race.

White communities and tucked away in quiet streets while BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, people of color) communities are cramped, over-policed and stereotyped as a ghetto and dangerous, she said.

Beverly resident Awa Diop, who teaches middle school, said she was not an activist but felt compelled to speak at the rally.

I am an introvert, Diop told the crowd. I take no pleasure speaking publicly. I seek no attention. I seek no special treatment. But today, this introvert had to roar.

Diop said her students have taught her to celebrate and affirm each others humanity.

When you say Black lives matter, you affirm my humanity, she said. When you affirm my humanity, you affirm your humanity.

Naisha Tatis, a Beverly High School student who organized a Black Lives Rally march in Beverly in June, urged people to go out and vote.

I know its a scary time. I know were in the middle of a pandemic, Tatis said. But I dont want to live through another four years of this. So lets make a change.

As the rally progressed, two men carrying Police Lives Matter flags yelled at the speakers and tried to interrupt them. At one point, Bennett called for a police officer as one of the men moved closer to the speakers. An officer spoke to the man, who then moved back to the sidewalk.

Bennett - a Peabody resident, youth minister at Zion Baptist Church in Lynn, and president of the board of the Essex County Community Organization - said he has been trying to harness the energy of young people across the North Shore to stage rallies. He said he has taken part in rallies in Peabody, Salem, Saugus and Boston over the last two weeks, and more than I can count over the last two months.

Theres definitely movement happening across the Commonwealth, Bennett said. People are hungry for change and to see the success of the movement. People are very cognizant that history will record us one way or the other, and the vast majority of people want to be on the right side of history.

Bennett said the crowd was smaller than at other rallies on the North Shore, but he attributed that to the heat and the threat of thunderstorms. The march from Beverly to Marblehead has been rescheduled for next Friday starting at 4 p.m. at Beverly City Hall.

Staff writer Paul Leighton can be reached at 978-338-2535 or pleighton@salemnews.com.

||||

We are making critical coverage of the coronavirus available for free. Please consider subscribing so we can continue to bring you the latest news and information on this developing story.

See the original post:

March postponed, but Black Lives Matter rally goes on - The Salem News