MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (WV News) With her voice cracking and tears beginning to flow, Del. Danielle Walker, D-Monongalia, raised her shirt to reveal the body armor she was wearing underneath.

Walker was speaking at a Black Lives Matter rally Thursday evening in Morgantown, organized in the wake of the death of Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old Black man who died in Minnesota after being shot by a police officer.

Once again, we are here. Once again, this is our meeting place, Walker said. Once again, the tears flow. The fear increases. The anger grows. And the heart is no longer broken, it is shattered.

Del. Danielle Walker, D-Monongalia, spoke during the Black Lives Matter rally held in front of the Monongalia County Courthouse, Thursday April 15.

Walker noted that people say the names of Black men killed by police violence when they happen and remember them on anniversaries, but she remembers them every day of her life for one reason: She is Black.

Im not OK, and, neither should you [be OK], she said. Im tired. Im frustrated. And Im scared. Im strong enough to lean on my community.

Walker said she felt guilt wearing body armor, but said it was a necessity.

As the only Black woman state elected official, I have to come into the town that I live in, a state I pay taxes in, where I am a stellar citizen and abide by the laws, come to my community space, and my king and I have to wear body armor, Walker said.

Walker said she was not going to walk in fear Thursday, relying on the support of those around her. But she offered a grim reminder of the reality she faces because of the color of her skin.

Dont make me a childless mother, but dont make my children motherless children, Walker said.

Thursdays rally was organized by Sammantha Harris.

Its just a really bad time to kill a Black man, Ill put it like that, she said. The trial of George Floyd is going on; everyone is already fed up with everything. Just because the winter has passed does not mean that social justice has ended.

Harris said people all around the nation are mad, and that anger exists in Morgantown.

Sammantha Harris organized the Black Lives Matter rally held in Morgantown Thursday April 15.

Its important that our local government and our local cops know that if things like that happen here, we wont accept it, Harris said. Its a nationwide change that needs to be made.

The Black Lives Matter movement is important, she said, because for a long time America told Black Americans that we dont matter.

Daunte Wright is my exact skin color I look at him and I see my brother, Harris said. Until America is able to acknowledge that Black lives do matter, were not going to move forward.

Harris emphasized this is not a case of trying to prove one race is more important than the other.

Were just saying that we matter the barest of the bare, the bar is literally on the floor, Harris said. Somehow we just keep digging under it.

If I was a cop, Id want a police review board so I would know I was doing it right, Harris said. Theres no other job where you dont have some sort of outside influence whether or not youre doing good. The fact that cops can just walk around doing whatever they want and have the protection of the union is absurd, and it has to stop.

The purpose of the rally, Harris said, was to make the city know they are still there and not going anywhere.

I think the City Council and the police were hoping that after last summer, after everything calmed down, that this wouldnt go on anymore, she said. Were not letting up.

Harris said that until theres change nationwide and government sees that citizens are demanding better, it wont get better.

Thats why nationwide movements are so important I know it didnt happen here, and that Minnesota is states away, but it could have happened here, Harris said.

Reach Chris Slater at cslater@wvnews.com, 304-887-6681, or follow @chris_slater on Twitter.

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'The fear increases. The anger grows' Black Lives Matter rally held at Monongalia County Courthouse in Morgantown (West Virgina) - WV News