Young students took to the streets in Hillsborough on Tuesday, rallying around the Black Lives Matter movement and calling for an end to systemic racism in the country.
“These issues of racism are so on the minds of young people now and they’ve watched the generations ahead of us kind of, I don’t want to say completely screw things up, but often turn a blind eye to racism,” said Connor Ranes, one of the organizers of the march.
The crowd of more than one hundred people marched from First Baptist Church to the steps of the old Orange County Courthouse and were given an escort from Hillsborough Police.
Ranes, a recent graduate of Cedar Ridge High School, is not the first student to organize a Black Lives Matter protest since the death of George Floyd on Memorial Day, nor will he be the last. Orange County has seen several protests organized by students, including one in Hillsborough in June.
In addition to their own voices, student organizers of Tuesday’s protest called upon local elected officials to voice their opinions on systemic racism in the United States.
“To all the young people who have organized and engaged in this rally, I truly appreciate you,” said county commissioner Renee Price through a statement. “I appreciate your willingness to stand up for civil rights, for your courage to show up for justice, for your moral conviction to speak up for human dignity and for your audacity to rise up and say that black lives matter.”
When North Carolina Representative Graig Meyer took the microphone, he spoke raising his adopted Black daughter. Meyer said his daughter experienced systemic racism at a young age when enrolled in the academically gifted program at her school.
“On her first day in the academically gifted program, we were so excited for her to come back and hear how her first day in the AG program went,” Meyer said. “She said to us, at age nine, ‘How come I’m the only Black person in there?'”
Meyer went on to say that his daughter once asked him why White people were smarter than Black people.
“She had come to internalize the fundamental American lie that somehow race is associated with intelligence. Now her mom doesn’t believe that’s true. I don’t believe that true. I don’t even think that most of her teachers believe that’s true, but that’s what systemic racism is.
“It infiltrates into all of our minds, making us believe that some people matter and some don’t. That we have to pretend like race. Doesn’t matter by saying things like all lives matter without that black lives matter is an inclusive statement, not an exclusive statement.”
Patricia Clayton, the president of the Northern Orange NAACP chapter, spoke about her own experiences with racism while growing up in North Carolina. Clayton, who was also at the protest held on the Fourth of July at the same location, expressed her dismay that her generation had gone through so much, but that racism was still prevalent in the country.
“My generation has already done the sit-ins, the peaceful marches, the not peaceful marches, the protests, the riots, the lock-ins, the boycotts, even elected a Black president hoping for change, but always it’s the same answer of, ‘Change is going to come,'” she said.
Elected officials who spoke preached the same message: If you want to see change, go out to vote. Ranes said he’s been encouraged with the effort by people in his generation, who are just now eligible to vote.
“I think the young people now are just tired. We want to see real change. We don’t want to just say things. We want to see concrete change. So I think that’s kind of the fire that’s fueling all of these recent protests organized by students.”
Chapelboro.com does not charge subscription fees. You can support local journalism and our mission to serve the community. Contribute today – every single dollar matters.
