Energetic Turnout at March Opposing Recent White Supremacist Rally

Sounds of drums, singing and chanting rang through downtown Hillsborough Saturday as several hundred anti-racist protestors marched to the front of the Historic Orange County Courthouse building where just last weekend members of the Ku Klux Klan held a widely-publicized event.

The March For A Hate Free Hillsborough saw speakers from local NAACP chapters, anti-racist organizations and indigenous peoples’ organizations and was co-hosted by Hate Free Schools Coalition and Hillsborough Progressives Taking Action.

Latarndra Strong, the founder of Hate Free Schools Coalition, said she was driving down the street last weekend when she saw the white supremacist group setting up near the old courthouse.

“I had my children in the car, and I told them to stay in the car. As I walked over I said to myself, I don’t know what I am going to say when I get over there, but they need to see my black face. I know a lot of white people are going to come out, but they need to see my black face. So for about 10 minutes it was a face off between me and them.”

Strong helped get the word out that day and in the following days, and organized this march.

“My heart is warmed by the number of people here. Remember, we had only five days to put this together,” she said. “So had we had another week, could you imagine what this crowd would be?”

Last weekend’s Klan meetup downtown was far from an isolated incident. Strong and other protestors had been showing up downtown to counter flag-waving white supremacist for the past four weeks now, she said. But the images from last weekend’s Klan rally, shared widely on social media by local and national figures including North Carolina House Representative Graig Meyer and Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rouke, had seemed to galvanize a larger response.

Representative Meyer was in attendance Saturday, he said his social media posts about last weekend’s event were shared over 5 million times online. And while the march and the outpouring of support were “healing” moments, he said, the work cannot stop there.

“What we really need in Hillsborough is to make it not just about these specific, highlighted events, but about building an inclusive community for everybody everyday,” he said.” We need to have schools and healthcare systems, criminal justice systems that all take care of every resident we have in this community. Rich and poor, white black and brown.”

Multiple chapter presidents of the NAACP attended the event, including North Carolina NAACP president Dr. Reverend Anthony Spearman and Chapel Hill-Carrboro Chapter President Anna Richards. Dr. Spearman introduced long-time activist Lucy Lewis. Lewis recounted her experience as a survivor of the Greensboro Massacre of 1979. On November 3 of that year, members of the Klan shot down five activists in Greensboro and injured scores more.

Just this past weekend, pictures shared by activists online showed Klan members openly carrying firearms, in defiance of state law banning the open carry of firearms, “in certain situations, such as at parades, protests, or demonstrations.” As previously reported on Chapelboro.com this week, Orange County authorities have taken out warrants against two individuals.

Organizers at the March for a Hate Free Hillsborough said they were thrilled with the turnout for the event. They said they couldn’t remember a time when they had seen this kind of attendance for a downtown protest.

Strong said moving forward, her organization will look to continue to mobilize folks to do the primary mission of the Hate-Free Schools Coalition: fighting racism.

As the crowd cheered on the next speaker, Strong said she was energized by the support.

“If you write anything, it’s important to me that you write or you speak about my love for the people who have showed up today.”