Black Lives Matter 757 marks 5-year anniversary with protest against community violence (original) (raw)

Black Lives Matter 757 marked its fifth anniversary Saturday evening with a march against recent community violence in Hampton Roads.

About 25 protesters stood on the corner of Mercury Boulevard and Coliseum Drive in Hampton with flags and megaphones, chanting several call-and-response cadences, such as “Black lives, they matter here” and “stop the violence.”

Several drivers and passersby engaged with the protesters, honking in support and raising their fists in solidarity out of their car windows.

The protesters later marched through the Peninsula Town Center.

The importance of youth involvement in the organization’s work was a common thread. About half of the protesters were teenagers.

Samuel Orlando, a 17-year-old who lives in Augusta County, said involvement with protests at a young age is allowing him to influence important issues, such as pushing for Augusta County sheriff’s deputies to be required to wear body cameras.

“What it means to me is trying to be part of the world’s history and trying to mean something,” Orlando said. “You don’t want to die and not mean anything. You want to leave the earth with your own imprint.”

Earl Lewis, who said he was a cousin of William Chapman, a Black man killed by a Portsmouth police officer in 2015, said it was inspiring to see so many young people participating. Lewis said young people were some of his strongest supporters after Chapman’s death.

“My thing is standing behind the young people who stood behind me,” Lewis said.

Black Lives Matter 757 was founded on July 10, 2016, a little more than a year after Chapman was killed.

In a phone interview before Saturday’s protest, Aubrey Japharii Jones, the president of Black Lives Matter 757, said the founding of the organization was spurred by “local injustices,” including the killings of Chapman, India Kager and David Latham by police in separate incidents between 2014 and 2016.

Black Lives Matter 757 leader, Aubrey Japharii Jones, leads a protest on Mercury Blvd. on Saturday, July 10, 2021 in Hampton, Va.

At Saturday’s gathering, the group also protested recent community violence and shootings in Hampton Roads.

“We originally were formulated to combat the issues in the 757, and of course it was mostly sparked by police brutality,” Jones said before the event. “But with the rise in community violence, you can’t ignore it and not give it as much attention as when an officer kills one of us.”

In an Instagram video Friday, Jones said gun violence and community violence in Hampton Roads is “getting out of control.”

Jones said the issue of community violence is personal, as he lost one of his closest friends to a gun incident in June.

Near the end of the protest, Jones outlined several new initiatives and programs that Black Lives Matter 757 will work on over the next year, including an anti-community violence initiative, as well as a mentoring program and a video series to educate people on their rights when interacting with police. Jones said that the organization will fundraise for the initiatives and it hopes to establish an office space this year.

In the five years since Black Lives Matter 757 was established, organizers have circulated various petitions to generate change in Hampton Roads and Virginia, including calling for Juneteenth to become a state holiday and for a pardon for Matthew Rushin, a Black autistic man who was sentenced to 10 years in prison for a car crash that left a man severely disabled.

“This all started with a little rinky-dink flyer on social media and blew up into five years of actual change,” Jones said in the interview before the protest.

At the conclusion of the protest, Jones thanked protesters for their participation and specifically applauded the young people.

“We will get past this. We will get past this community violence and we’re gonna heal each other,” Jones said at the conclusion of the protest. “And we’re gonna make sure that the next generation doesn’t have to deal with this.”

Originally Published: July 11, 2021 at 11:47 AM EST