EAST LYME DEMOCRATS TO HOST RALLY AND VIGIL TODAY

East Lyme — Town Democrats have organized a peaceful rally and vigil to take place at noon today at the Samuel M. Peretz Park at Bridebrook, 221 West Main St.

The event seeks to honor the lives of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor while also standing “in solidarity with Black Indigenous People of Color in the fight against racism, the fight for social justice and to support the reform necessary to break the cycle of brutality that led to their, and countless other deaths,” according to a Facebook post about the event.

Floyd is the black man who died last month after a white Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee into his neck during an arrest, and Taylor is a black woman fatally shot in her own home by Louisville Metro Police Department officers in March.

Confirmed speakers at the event will include Dr. Terrlyn L. Currey, founder of Sacred Intelligence; Jean Jordan, a retired teacher and president of the New London NAACP; Janelle Posey-Green, a social worker who recently created the CT Black Mental Health Forum to support the emotional needs of the local black community; Tariko Satterfield, an entrepreneur; Kevin Booker Jr., founder of Booker Empowerment, and Elizabeth Allen, a licensed clinical social worker with extensive experience on substance abuse, complex trauma and forensic settings.

Those coming to the event are asked to wear a mask and follow social distancing measures.