Imogen Rawlings-Green, Editor
@irawlingcourant
George Floyd’s death sparked thousands of protests and riots across America demanding justice and change surrounding the Black Lives Matter movement.
Last Thursday, over 1,000 people came together to peacefully march in New Canaan calling for change; the march was organized by the Niang family. People held various signs reading “Your Pain is Our Pain,” “We are Dying in the Face of Injustice,” and “I Understand that I Will Never Understand. However, I Stand.”
Chants such as “Black Lives Matter,” “Say his name, George Floyd. Say her name, Breonna Taylor,” “No justice no peace. No racist police” echoed along the streets of South Avenue and Main Street.
The organizers of the march, Fatou Niang and her son Ethan Niang, delivered speeches at the New Canaan Police Department, along with other students and clergy members. “It was time to do something about it. I think we all have a good will, but a lot of people are afraid to do something about it because it’s not convenient to change something in their life,” Ms. Niang said. “But at some point, you’ve got to say that enough is enough. There is COVID-19 in the air. We all have to care about it, but we cannot just idle and let this moment go by. My biggest wish is that George Floyd’s name is the last name on the list. Too many times.”
Ms. Niang explained what this march stands for in terms of fighting police brutality and racism. “It’s hard to express this without being emotional because not all police are bad. We are lucky to be in a community where the police have been fantastic. We are not having all the problems that most communities have,” Ms. Niang said. “But they are still sensitive to the case, so that is why it took pleasure with us to march with them today along with the clergy because this is about racism at large, it is not about just racism against black people, it’s about bias in general and I think our society should do better.”
While there were certainly many adults and parents, much of the younger generation joined the march and called for justice. Holding a sign that reads “we are dying in the face of injustice,” rising junior Paige Davis explained why coming to this march was important to her. “Especially being a young African-American girl in a predominantly white town, the problem of injustice in the African-American community really brought me here today,” she said. “Change is necessary. This cannot be happening. Change starts now, change starts with everybody. Everybody can make a difference.”
A rising senior at New Canaan High School, Hannah Swimm, said that she joined the march because she felt that the systemic racism in this country is intolerable. “Joining this march is the best way to make my voice heard and make it clear that I don’t tolerate what’s going on in this country,” she said. “Even if we don’t have many injustices in our town, in the state of Connecticut, and especially in the New York area, there are police departments that have procedures not necessarily justified. There are towns that may not record everything about how force is used and there may be excessive force. If the New Canaan Police can hear what we want and make a statement regarding it, then maybe we can make some change in the broader area.”
A recently graduated high school senior and previous editor-in-chief of the Courant, Alexandra Harte, hoped that by standing with hundreds of other protestors, more people would educate themselves about this issue in our society. “I think it is really important to represent the black members of our community and to stand up for what we believe is right, which is obviously that black lives matter,” she said.
With thousands showing their support at the march, brother of Ethan Niang and graduated high school student, Lucas Niang, felt amazed at the turnout. “It’s crazy to see this much support. I wasn’t expecting it. It’s a great turnout. It just really shows that a lot of people care,” he said. Lucas hopes for change in our community and shares that what matters is how people treat the overall subject. “If everybody learns about history, you start seeing a change,” he said.
To read about the police’s opinion on the march in New Canaan, click here.
To read more about the speeches given at the march, click here.
