After two months, Columbus organizers seek to revitalize protests against racism
COLUMBUS (WCMH) — More than two months after protests started in Columbus, organizers are working to keep demonstrators motivated.
The death of George Floyd in Minneapolis sparked the initial protests which carried on for weeks.
Organizers said that recently, things have slowed down and they want them to get going again.
On Saturday afternoon, there were a few dozen people chanting by the Ohio Statehouse.
Earlier this summer, that was a daily occurrence.
On Saturday, a group marched from Goodale Park and spend most of the day listening to speakers, talking about different ways to organize and about what they can do to not get burned out.
The name of Saturday’s event was 150 Days of Injustice: Revitalize Black Lives.
Organizers said the 150 days comes from the fact that it has been nearly 150 days since Breonna Taylor was killed by police in Louisville, KY.
Organizers said the Revitalize Black Lives part of the name comes from them wanting to keep demonstrating against racism and police brutality.
“We’ve seen the Columbus protests die down a lot,” said demonstrator Samantha Sizemore. “A lot of people are scattered doing individually led things, which is great, but we wanted to bring our collective power back together and just really motivate folks and realize the injustice is still here.”
Sizemore wants to see change.
“The fight is never over because there is still so much injustice,” she said.
“It’s still important even though it’s been two months and maybe it’s not the top of peoples’ minds anymore,” added demonstrator Kelley Fox. “It’s still just as important as it was on, like, what, May 25, something like that, whenever this all started.”
Fox and Sizemore came together and organized Saturday’s demonstration.
“In the last month or so, I think people have burned out and people have been not wanting to come out as much, so our hope with this event was to get people to revitalize their support of Black Lives Matter,” Fox said.
Throughout Saturday’s event, they talked about what comes next, kept conversations going through the rain, made signs, and eventually held some of those signs up in front of the Statehouse.
“We want to keep it on the radar because this is how it all gets swept under the rug again and peoples’ lives are way too important to just forget about and deal with later,” Sizemore said.
The march comes nearly a week after the Columbus City Council approved a number of measures to address police reform within the city.
Organizers said some small steps have been made when it comes to progress over the past couple of months, but added there’s still a lot more work to do.