PHOTOS: Black Lives Matter Philly March at DNC

August 6, 2016 by Cat Watters Leave a Comment

3 young white people wearing T shirts that read, NICE, WHITE LIBERAL at the start of the BLM march from Diamond and Broad to City Hall, where it met up with demonstrators from Workers World party, then onto the Wells Fargo Center where the DNC was held. A good 6+ mile walk in the glaring hot sun which did not keep many people away. A few hundred turned out to say to the DNC, STOP KILLING BLACK PEOPLE.

Getting ready to march,, this man holding a sign reading a Mark Twain quote, “If voting could change anything they wouldn’t let us do it”.

African Americans, Caucasian, Asians, Palestinians, people of all ethnicities, backgrounds and ages came out to show support for what has been happening to mostly young black males who have been gunned down by police all over the U.S. with no accountability. All of the cops involved in the killing of Freddie Gray in Baltimore have had the charges dropped. It’s easy for Freddie Gray to be killed but, holding those who are responsible accountable is, somehow, an impossibility. A dead male youth with a 80% severed spinal cord is not enough evidence to put one cop in prison and yet, the jails are overflowing with non criminals.

Organizer from Black Lives Matter march down Broad Street to City Hall telling all the “White people to move to the back. Make space cause this is a black resistance march”.

One of the BLM cars getting ready to drive and lead the march down Broad St from Diamond St to City Hall then onto the Wells Fargo Center where the DNC took place, which is a 6 mile walk on an extremely hot day.

Ewuare X. Osayande is an award-winning poet, social justice activist and anti-oppression educator. He is the author of more than fifteen books including Misogyny and the Emcee: Sex, Race and Hip Hop, Whose America?: New and Selected Poems, and Commemorating King: Speeches Honoring the Civil Rights Movement. Osayande is the former chairperson of the Philadelphia chapter of the Black Radical Congress. He has taught African American Studies at Rutgers University. In 2012 he edited and published Stand Our Ground: Poems for Trayvon Martin and Marissa Alexander, a global anthology that raised $10,000 for both campaigns. Reading from his book entitled “Who’s America?” He referred to the “two political parties who have not stopped the police from killing us. Those who have said that a Trump presidency would usher in the era of American fascism. But, for us black people, for us brown people, for us Indigenous people, fascism is already here”.

unnamed-7 — To see and hear Ewuare Osayande poetry reading, see video below

unnamed-6 — Mr Cephus Uncle Bobby Johnson, the Uncle of Oscar Grant who was killed at the Fruitvale BART station in Oakland CA on New Years eve 2008. Mr Johnson has been an activist involved with the Love Not Blood Campaign,, The Love Not Blood Campaign, (LNBC) is a 501(c)(3) organization that was founded to work with families that has suffered the traumatic experience of gun violence, whether by police officers, security officers, or community violence. The LNBC will work to bring about an atmosphere of social justice throughout the United States and Internationally. On July 14, 2014, the Founder of Oscar Grant Foundation, Cephus ‘Uncle Bobby” Johnson, Uncle of Oscar Grant, gifted the OGF to Oscar Grant mother, Wanda Johnson. On July 15th 2014, The LNBC was Co-Founded by Cephus ‘Uncle Bobby” Johnson and Co-Founder Beatrice X Johnson, the LNBC has continued the work that was done in OGF to now include community violence and mass incarceration to its mission campaign, thus our campaign “A Campaign to End Police Terrorism, Mass Incarceration, Community Violence” *************Our Slogan**************** “It’s Always, Always, Always about the Children”

Organizers Chanting “No Justice No Peace, No Racist Police” from the back of a pick up that slowly drove down Broad St in Philly from Diamond St to City Hall and then to the Wells Fargo Center on Tuesday July 26th during the DNC where hundreds came out in support for Black Lives Matter.

Before the march began Organizers called out the names of those killed by police and the crowd called out “We Honor you” and the name was handed out to a demonstrator who would carry that name.

A few demands about the kind of world people want to live in.

One man tole me why he was attending this march for Black Lives, “The DNC and the policies they support don’t do enough for minority populations even though they say they do. Police Departments that have higher killing rates are actually Democratically controlled. I believe they are responsible for the violence in African American communities”.

One demonstrator holding a sign with some Statistics about what it is to be a young black male in the Unites States.

On the other side of his Sign,, more stats.

Chanting “Brick by Brick, Wall by Wall we’re gonna Free Mumia Abu Jamal”. Mumia Abu-Jamal is: an internationally celebrated black writer and radio journalist author of six books and hundreds of columns and articles organizer and inspiration for the prison lawyers movement former member of the Black Panther Party and supporter of Philadelphia’s radical MOVE organization who has spent the last 30 years in prison, almost all of it in solitary confinement on Pennsylvania’s Death Row. His demand for a new trial and freedom is supported by: heads of state and prominent politicians worldwide (France, Africa, the Caribbean, Latin America, and elsewhere) Nobel laureates Nelson Mandela, Toni Morrison, Desmond Tutu the European and Japanese Parliaments city governments from San Francisco to Detroit to Paris and its suburbs distinguished human rights organizations such as Amnesty International the Congressional Black Caucus and other members of the U.S. Congress prominent civil rights groups such as the NAACP numerous labor unions such as and by scholars, religious leaders, artists, scientists and countless others who cherish democracy, human rights and justice. Mumia’s trial and conviction Mumia Abu-Jamal was tried, convicted and sentenced to death in 1982 for the murder of Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner, an incident which took place on December 9,1981. Since the trial For the next 30 years, Mumia was held in isolation on Death Row. He was kept there for over ten years even though a federal judge ordered his death sentence overturned in 2001. However, after losing numerous appeals of that order, the Philadelphia District Attorney on December 7, 2011 announced he was giving up his attempts to restore Mumia’s death sentence. Mumia remains in prison under a sentence of life without parole. https://www.freemumia.com/who-is-mumia-abu-jamal/

The Police presence in Philadelphia was considerable. The march was permitted and peaceful as far as I could see. The protesters marched more than six miles down Broad Street. When they reached Philadelphia’s city hall, the Black Lives Matter activists joined forces with a socialist, anti-racist demonstration held by the Workers World Party.

When Black Lives Matter protestors reached City Hall and combined with Workers World Party activists, they led another anti-Clinton chant: “No Clinton, no KKK, no Wall Street USA!”

About Cat Watters

Cat Watters is a journalist, blogger, videographer, photographer and radio host on Peoples Internet Radio. She is an expert at photographing, filming and editing footage of street protests, street actions, political rallies, and other events. Cat writes for Democracy Chronicles from Brooklyn, New York and you can tune in to her radio show at Peoples Internet Radio every Tuesday from 6 to 8pm EST.

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