Protestors in Chapel Hill Call for Fair Treatment of Black Americans

Wednesday’s march in Chapel Hill started as an idea from Emile Charles and his friend, Isabel Huesa, who were in town. The incoming UNC first-year said he wasn’t sure how many people would show up, but he said something needed to be done in solidarity with protests around the country.

“This was put together by two students who just wanted to see something,” Charles said. “Chapel Hill had been silent, it had been quiet and nothing was happening. And now to see over one thousand people come out is incredible.”

The event, publicized on social media, drew people in from all over, with some of the masked demonstrators saying they were from Raleigh, Cary and even Atlanta. 

Mikayla Thompson and Peyton Whitaker were two of the many gathered on the McCorkle Place lawn with homemade signs. Thompson, who said she drove from Clayton to attend the event, held one that said ‘All Lives Cannot Matter Until Black Lives Do.’

“The more we talk about it,” she said, “the more [people] will have to think about it and talk about it, and things will have to change.”

Whitaker, who is a UNC student and is a high school friend of Thompson’s, held a sign that listed victims of social injustices and also had names written of African American friends, classmates and professors she was marching for.

“All these lives matter and they affect me,” Whitaker said. “Even the ones who don’t affect me directly, they still matter and add to the community.”

Gwenn Mangine also attended the protest with two of her children. She said they drove from Cary and were using the demonstration as an alternative form of learning.

“We informed our school teachers we are opting out of the last couple of weeks of school,” said Mangine, “to dig into these issues of justice and inequality that we’re experiencing in our world.”

Mangine said her family has a clear perspective of the inequalities and challenges African Americans face, since some of her sons are black.

“Our family was built through adoption,” she said. “We just find it unacceptable that the outcomes are so different for our black sons and our white sons.”

Like many other recent protests, participants voiced their anger at police brutality and racial injustices against African Americans in the United States. Flyers were distributed encouraging Orange County residents to advocate for defunding local police departments while increasing funding for housing opportunities and holding officers accountable.

Speakers for the event included Chapel Hill Town Council member Tai Huynh, President of the Raleigh-Apex chapter of the NAACP Gerald Givens, United Church of Chapel Hill associate pastor David Mateo and more.

After the speakers, a march down Franklin Street began. Protestors circled back to march down Cameron Avenue through the heart of UNC’s campus before turning again and marching back down Franklin Street, chanting the names of recent African Americans who died from uses of force by police.

As the march ended and the demonstrators gathered again at McCorkle Place to drink water, people made a circle and began sharing personal stories about their unjust treatment by police or incidents caused by systemic racism over a bullhorn. At one point, someone interrupted to share the news that more severe charges were being leveled against Derek Chauvin and the three other former Minneapolis Police officers involved in George Floyd’s death.

Charles said he was pleased with the charges being announced against the officers, as well as the event’s success and participants’ passion. But he said demonstrations like this just scratch the surface of achieving the widespread change promoted on Wednesday.

“The road that’s to come is not just justice and reform, but an absolute rewriting of the system,” said Charles. “As speakers said earlier, the whole system is corrupt: it’s a white supremacist, racist system. And it’s led by a facist government, people who are willing to send out the police and military to break up protestors, who are willing to violently break up crowds for a photo [opportunity] in front of a church. That’s not okay.”

A spokesperson for the Chapel Hill Police Department described the event as peaceful, with no incidents reported with protestors before, during or after the event.

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