Building off of the Black Lives Matter rally on May 31st in Danville, local activists held their second rally Saturday afternoon in downtown Danville. Though a much smaller amount of people showed up to the event, it still gave leaders such as Mary Catherine Roberson to speak about what people should do next to ensure racial justice.
Roberson told the crowd in front of the Vermilion County Administration Building she feels strides have been made in holding law enforcement accountable, but the work is far from over:
“But what we cannot do is to let that narrative pass, that for (our lives) to matter to you, it has to matter to us,” she explained of the police. “It has to matter to you because we are human. Our lives should matter to you because you protect and serve us. Our lives should matter to you because…a killing of a human covers it all.”
Other local Black speakers talked about how important voting in the November election was to their cause. One speaker was a Danville High School student who talked about how Black students are treated differently by teachers than white students.
LeStan Hoskins, the pastor of Community Church of God, said elected officials and the police should be held to a higher standard.
“Hold them to a higher standard,” he said. “Expect the best from them, and if they’re not doing their jobs, we get them out of office.”
Danville NAACP President Ed Butler noted that 2016 was the first time he remembers a former Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan (David Duke) had come out publicly in support of a presidential candidate, and he said voting in November will make a difference in the communities.
Roberson says not enough change has been made since the George Floyd protests, and she adds that it’s not possible without a diverse group of elected officials.
“I think that until we can get the political landscape to be reflective of the community that it serves, the folks at the tables of power don’t necessarily all of the perspectives that we hears today, so it’s important that we have a diverse group of people, but in order to get those people elected we have to have those people running,” Roberson explained.
Along with encouraging people to vote in the upcoming election, a group of Democratic precinct committeewomen handed out voting applications during the event.
Early voting at both the Danville Election Commission and the Vermilion County Clerk’s Office starts Thursday, September 24th.
