Houston County NAACP march makes history

The Houston County Branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), led by its president, Rev. Dr. Rutha Jackson, organized a peaceful demonstration entitled the Unity in Community Protest that came to fruition on Saturday evening in Warner Robins. The ethnically diverse crowd of citizens who participated was made up primarily of middle Georgians who banned together to say: enough is enough.

“The vision of the protest was planted because the NAACP by itself is just one entity,” Jackson told Houston Home Journal. “But when we bring all the forces together, we have a stronger voice and a stronger appearance. It says that we are likeminded and focused on the main issue. And the main issue is racism.”

The march began in the lot of the At Home superstore on Watson Blvd. and ended at the Warner Robins City Hall. An estimated number of 400-500 men, women and children flooded the roadways, chanting phrases like, “Black lives matter,” “No justice. No peace” and “I can’t breathe.” Some carried signs that restated the same. It was a display that drew patrons out of roadside restaurants, hotels, and shopping venues; many held up cell phones, catching the monumental event in pictures and on video.

According to Rev. Jackson, the message she hopes that she and protestors got across is simple: “The injustice of racism, the inequality of African Americans in this city, in this county, and in this country… somebody has to say something about it, so we’re the voice, and we want to speak about it instead of burning down buildings or going out and damaging property. We want to be able to articulate ourselves so that people will understand that we are about purpose and changing a systemic system that has been pressing us down for years and years.”

As protestors reached Warner Robins City Hall, several city officials and other citizens took the podium to share their own hearts regarding injustice.

“I invited them because they needed to have a word,” Jackson said. “They needed to say something in lieu of what has happened, because what’s been happening in other places can easily happen here in Houston County. Easily,” she repeated.

Bishop Harvey B. Bee, pastor of The Winning Church in Warner Robins, served as the master of ceremony as the marchers settled at City Hall. He kicked things off by saying, “It’s time for change. The reason that we just walked three miles in 90-degree weather is because we care, and we want change. Whether you know it or not, you have made history today,” he later added. “Never before have we had a march this large in Houston County. This is a historical moment,” Bee proclaimed

Rev. Dr. Rutha Jackson stood before the crowd and shared moving words, calling out the blatant racism and inequality against African Americans that continues to take place across the globe. “Black lives matter,” she said. “Our opinions matter. Our children matter. Our families matter. Our success matters. Our education matters. Our access to resources matter. Our votes matter. Mattering is the minimum,” she further stated. “Black lives are valuable. They are worthy, and they are important. Silence is no longer golden.”

Jackson later expressed, “This protest is to lift injustice committed toward unarmed men and women in our country, in our states, and in our cities.” She went on to call the names of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery as examples of Blacks who, she declared, were all recently “unmercifully murdered” at the hands of Caucasian members of law enforcement. It was due, Jackson said, to the “cultural conditioning of systemic racism that devalues and dehumanizes that marginal line that underestimates black lives. We call it out to cut it out!” she declared.

Chief John Wagner (Warner Robins Police Dept.) said, “This is unity and community. I took my oath to serve this community almost 29 years ago. I still take that oath very seriously. On my honor, I will never betray my badge, my integrity, my character or the public trust. I will always have the courage to hold myself and others accountable for our actions.”

Chief Steve Lynn (Perry Police Dept.) shared information about a new program being developed in Perry called The Trust Initiative. “It’s about building pathways and bridges into communities, hearing the concerns of the people within the communities, and coming up with ways to be collaborative and on the same page.” Lynn explained that this was a three-year program and that they had already engaged with the NAACP, and they were working to come up with solutions to the existing problems.

Major Alan Everidge (Houston County Sheriff’s Office) stated that he has worked in law enforcement for 34 years, and he echoed words that were said to him when he first got onboard. “We’re going to treat people like we want our family treated,” Everidge quoted. “What happened in Minneapolis was wrong,” he said emphatically. “There are no ifs, ands, or buts about it. Good law enforcement officers do not like bad law enforcement officers. We should treat you with respect.”

Some of the community’s youth leaders were given two minutes each to share their thoughts. Each one talked about activism, racism, and social injustice both locally and around the country. They quoted martyrs like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, challenging the world to take an honest look at the imbalance of injustice and police brutality toward African Americans and the racism that runs ramped on almost every level, including the educational system, the economic system and criminal justice system.

Pastor Jordon Poole of Hope Church in Fort Valley was visibly shaken as he took the mic. “I’m here with a broken heart,” Poole said. “This is not what I want to pass on to my children. I don’t want to pass on a world and a country where my children have to see another black man killed in the street.”

Pastor Poole further said, “As a white man, I’ve never felt scared when I got pulled over by the police. As a white man, I’ve never had to worry about if I’m jogging through the right neighborhood or not. As a white man, I’ve never had to worry about just sitting in my house, and if the door is going to be kicked in and my life is going to be ended.”

Poole then shared a story of how his daughter had fallen from the couch at his home. In doing so, she bumped her head and proceeded to cry. “I was about to say, why are you crying? It didn’t hurt that bad. But I stopped, and thought, oh my God,” Poole said. “How can I tell her not to be hurt when I didn’t experience her pain?” He then directed his talk to his fellow white citizens, telling them that since they had not had the experience of black people, they had no right to tell them how to feel when there had been generations of hurt and generations of systems and laws put in place that have cause Blacks pain and anguish.

Trichelle Hutten, a woman who introduced herself as “a regular, 50-year-old Jewish white lady who owns a business in Perry, Georgia,” expressed the horror she felt while watching the video of George Floyd’s murder by Minneapolis police. “I was horrified. I was heartbroken. But you know what I was not?” she posed. “I was not surprised. And when I saw friends and family, people that I use to respect and people that I love discounting it, making excuses and saying things that were hurtful and racist—you know what? I wasn’t surprised.”

Hutten went on to admit, “I had to take a look at myself and say, as a white woman, am I doing enough?” In even greater transparency, Hutten confessed that while she would readily confront strangers regarding their racist behavior, she was guilty of not do the same with people that she knows. “It’s a hard, hard thing to do,” she said before promising that going forward, she would have those hard conversations.

Attorney Francys Johnson (of Francys Johnson Attorney and Counselor at Law in Statesboro, Ga.) was the keynote speaker for the afternoon. Among the many things that he said in his spirited speech, Johnson stated, “Until we tell the truth, we’ll be forever bound in the lies that we tell ourselves. The truth of the matter is, we wouldn’t be here today if it weren’t for sustained protests by young people that were told to go home, but said, ‘No, we’re done dying.’”

Johnson went on to list some of the things that had been accomplished only because people were willing to protest for the cause. “Let me tell you what 14 days of protesting in the street will get you,” he started. “It will get you the arrest of the murderers of Ahmaud Arbery. Had there not been protests in the street, they were content on letting this thing play out over months, maybe years. But what didn’t happen in 73 days took place in 48 hours. Why? Because people said, ‘We’re done dying.’”

He continued with, “When your fiancée has been shot in her own bed like Breonna Taylor was—when you administer a no-knock warrant on the wrong house, looking for somebody you already have in custody. And instead of allowing her fiancé to go to her funeral, you lock him up and charge him with [attempted] murder. What protests did was get that brother free from those charges,” Johnson declared into an excited crowd.

“Protests will get 50 cities to announce they’re going to reform their police department,” Johnson informed. “Protests will get third degree murder charges against the killer of George Floyd upgraded to second degree murder charges. What protests will get you is a banning of choke holds, and I’m waiting on Houston County to ban choke holds in this area,” he challenged. “What sustained protests will get you is Black Lives Matter—that was once denigrated and told to go sit down and shut up—now being painted on the street that leads to the White House!” Johnson charged.

The march ended as peacefully as it began; with Blacks, Whites, Hispanics, Asians, and other ethnicities all shaking hands, sharing in conversation, and embracing one another. As some made the three-mile walk back to the At Home lot where cars had been left, chants of, “Love, not hate—will make America great,” could be heard.

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