ONE TOWN UNITED
POTTSTOWN » Another peaceful rally and march was held downtown Sunday, with thousands filling High Street and calling for equal treatment under the law for all Americans.
Once again, the organizers were four young people, Troy Rivera, Nate Smith, Xiomara Cosme and Shakira Skipper, with lots of help from Pottstown NAACP and YWCA Tri-County Area.
The event followed upon the heels of the previous week’s impromptu and unpublicized march, quadrupling the size of the crowd from several hundred to several thousand.
The view of the June 7 march from the top of the old Ellis Mills building Sunday made it clear it attracted at least 2,000 people, similar to an event Friday in Phoenixville, and other marches springing up in towns and cities everywhere.
Both marches in Pottstown and the one in Phoenixville were peaceful and there was no violence or property damage. In all three, police marched with the protestors.
There was no shortage of energy, determination and calls for action during Sunday’s event, which began at Smith Family Plaza in front of borough hall.
There, people, most of whom wore masks to prevent the spread of coronavirus, were asked to take a pledge against racism and offered the opportunity to register to vote.
Then, with Cosme on the bullhorn, those who could were urged to take to High Street.
And they did, by the hundreds, stretching three blocks along the length of the street.
A Pottstown Police cruiser led the way as High Street was closed to traffic between York and Adams streets.
Along with the Pottstown police officers working to manage traffic were officers from West Pottsgrove, North Coventry, Lower Pottsgrove and Lower Frederick.
Those who marched came in all shapes, sizes, ages and colors, and included Pottstown Police Chief Michael Markovich.
After the event was over, Markovich said “it was a good day for Pottstown,” noting that the march’s organizers “set the standard for the country” on how to organize a peaceful march that gets its message across.
Part of that message had to do with police violence against African-Americans, and the use of dangerous restraining holds like the one used by former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin on George Floyd, who was handcuffed.
The video recording of Floyd’s death as three other officers did nothing, has sparked a fire of protest, what state Rep. Tim Hennessey, R-26th Dist., called “an awakening, that is now worldwide, with protests springing up in every country.”
But as Smith reminded the crowd, “it’s not just about the deaths that get caught on camera, it’s about the people who died off camera.”
“We need to have those conversations with police, to tell us what kind of holds they are authorized to use,” said Skipper.
U.S. Rep. Madeleine Dean, D-4th Dist., said Monday a “massive police reform package” is to be introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives to, among other things, “stop the choke hold.”
“We don’t use choke holds,” Markovich said later, referring to the Pottstown force he leads. “We don’t believe in them.”
The knee hold used by Chauvin has now given another meaning to a gesture that first gained widespread use after former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick began doing it during the playing of the national anthem as a peaceful protest of police brutality against African-Americans.
“All kinds of people are willing to bend their knee for black lives,” said Stacey Woodland, executive director of YWCA TriCounty Area in Pottstown.
“The bended knee has become a symbol of solidarity, even of love,” she said. “But it can also be a symbol of hatred.” Chauvin held his knee on Floyd’s neck for more than eight minutes “and those eight minutes have brought us to our knees,” Woodland said.
“What will it take to get us back up?” she asked. “It will take love, and it will take justice!”
“That means justice for George Floyd. This is a test that America has failed again and again, but we have to believe it has failed for the last time,” said Woodland. “America, we love you and we will not let you fail this time. This has to be the last time.”
“This cannot be the end, this is a start,” said Pottstown High School teacher Na’imah Rhodes.
“When we leave here, everybody out there — every officer; every congresswoman, every community member — ask yourself this question, what’s next?”
What’s next, according to some speakers, may be the next generation.
Friday’s protest in Phoenixville
was organized by Phoenixville Area High School students. The protests in Pottstown were organized by people who graduated from Pottstown High School only a short time ago.
“Change will not come from our seniors, but from our youth,” said Rhodes.
“Look around you and see the young people standing amongst you today,” said Emanuel Wilkerson, who was elected to the Pottstown School Board when he was still a high school student. “That’s what we need, we need to empower young people.”
As examples, he said “when Jesus walked to the cross, he was in his 30s. When Martin Luther King walked on Selma, he was in his 30s, so if they can do it, you can do it.”
The young people who organized Sunday’s event said it began with a desire to prove wrong those who said Pottstown could not hold a peaceful protest, said Rivera.
He said a voice in the back of his head, which he attributed to his grandmother who died recently, “told me to use my voice.”
“We’re just a small town, but look what we can do,” said Smith.
Skipper was more pointed.
Addressing the police officers in attendance, she said “when you guys go back to work, don’t forget this day and what it meant for our community. Continue to be the cool cops. Encourage fellow officers to keep the peace, to respect us, to protect us, and to care about us.”
“You don’t have to change the world to make a difference,” Skipper said.
“If we want to make a change, we have to be that presence, because if we’re not there, they’re not going to know, they can’t read our minds,” Cosme said in urging all to do the hard work of staying involved and pushing for change.
One way for people to know your intentions, said the Rev. Justin Valentine, pastor of Kingdom Life Church in Pottstown and who offered the final prayer, is to vote.
“This is a more sophisticated protester in this generation, who will take this talk into the board room, into every executive suite, into the nooks and crannies where this conversation was never being had before,” said Valentine before asking the crowd to silently take a knee.
“Don’t lose this energy. Don’t lose this fire. Don’t lose this excitement,” Valentine preached. “And please, by God, in November take this same energy to the voting booth and vote dammit.”
This article first appeared as a post in The Digital Notebook blog.