Vigil for George Floyd and Black Lives: June 5th, 2020 Zoom Broadcast from Boone, NC.
The following are the opening remarks spoken as part of a virtual Vigil for George Floyd and Black Lives, part of the efforts against racism and state-sanctioned murder of Black people by Small and Mighty Acts. Small and Mighty Acts is a grassroots community group based in Boone, NC founded by Cara Hagan in 2016. SAMA’s mission is to help people reach their civic potential. Guests included Tiffany and RJ Christian, Jacinta White, and Mary Lyons.
Ceremony has been and will always be a vehicle for grief during challenging times. I thank you community — in Appalachia and beyond — for joining together to pay respects to the recently deceased. George Floyd, murdered on May 25th, whose death marks the ignition of a world-wide fight for Black Lives; Tony McDade, murdered on May 27th; Breonna Taylor, on what would have been her 27th birthday, murdered on March 13th; Ahmaud Arbery, murdered on February 23rd; and a host of Black lives lost to anti-Black racism. In our time together I hope we can begin to confront the profound sadness that is the loss of a son, a brother, a cousin, a father, a friend. A mother, a sister, a daughter, a mentor, a lover, a colleague, a familiar face, a piece of one’s community. None of the aforementioned were all of these things. But they were each some of these things and it should be acknowledged that any one of these things, lost to anyone, is sorrow.
I am most disheartened to acknowledge that this event is not the first of its kind, nor will it be the last. The blight of state-sanctioned violence and vigilantism against Black people in our country is one that affects every institution, every transaction, and indeed, every person in our society. It has taken no less than four hundred years for America to create, recreate, and to nurture a culture of supremacy and fear. And I fear that if we do not utilize this moment as an opportunity to begin to undo the knots white supremacy has tied in our hearts and in our minds, it will take another four humdred years to even pick up the rope.
It is likely that no one here on this call today knew George Floyd Personally. It is likely that no one on this call knew Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, or Ahmaud Arbery, personally. What is more likely though, is that you know something about their lived experiences. You are a runner. You go to bed each night, with the expectation that you will sleep and wake in the morning safely in your own home. You go about your business each day, making your way through the familiar spaces of your home city or town with the expectation that you will do much the same, tomorrow.
If you are Black in America, “tomorrow” is a precarious concept. “Tomorrow” means that you live another day to occupy spaces that were never meant for you. “Tomorrow” means that you have the burden of carrying in your body, generations of trauma born of race-based oppression. “Tomorrow” means that the very breath you draw into your lungs is an affront to the supremacy run rampant in our country and those who uphold it, willfully or unintentionally. “Tomorrow” is not something generously offered to you by the ideals enshrined in our country’s founding documents. “Tomorrow” means you must fight harder than you are fighting today.
As we turn our attention to our ceremony tonight, I ask that you remember that ritual is more than performance. It is both spiritual balm and an act of defiance. In this short time together, we will denounce Black death and SAY THEIR NAMES. We will lift them up with light and prayer and song. We will fight for them, and fight for each other.
Guests Tiffany Christian and RJ Christian were invited to SAY THEIR NAMES. The over 150 names on this list include Black men, women, and transgender people killed by state-sanctioned violence, white vigilantism, or hate crimes. The names included on this list are but a small fraction of those killed in this country since its founding. Many of those killed go unnamed and unremembered by history.
You can watch the second half of the vigil here (I was a bad zoom operator!): https://vimeo.com/426575626
*Victims From the Trans Community
**Victims From the Civil Rights Era
*** Lynching Victims
George Floyd
Breonna Taylor
Ahmaud Arbery
Wilbon Woodard
Tony McDade*
Tanisha Anderson
Shelly Frey
Alberta Spruil
Miriam Carey
Michelle Cusseaux
Kayla Moore
Sandra Bland
Megan Hockaday
Alexia Christian
Shantel Davis
Muhlaysia Booker *
Rekia Boyd
Eric Garner
Michael Brown
Laquan McDonald
Michelle Tamika Washington *
Paris Cameron *
Tamir Rice
Walter Scott
Claire Legato *
Freddie Gray
Jamar Clark
Alton Sterling
Philando Castile
Chynal Lindsey *
Stephon Clark
Botham Jean
Ezell Ford
Natasha Mckenna
Bettie Jones
Atatiana Jefferson
Eric Reason
Dominique Clayton
John Crawford III
Akai Gurley
Chanel Scurlock *
Rumian Brisbon
Jerame Reid
George Mann
Mathew Ajibade
Frank Smart
Zoe Spears *
Tony Robinson
Anthony Hill
Mya Hall
Brooklyn Lindsey *
Denali Berries Stuckey *
Phillip White
Eric Harris
William Chapman II
Alexia Christian
Brendon Glenn
Tracy Single *
Victor Manuel Larosa
Johnathan Sanders
Freddie Blue
Bubba Walker *
Salvado Ellswood
Albert joseph Davis
Darius Stewart
Billy Ray Davis
Samuel Dubois
Michael Sabbie
Brian Keith Day
Kiki Fantroy *
Christian taylor
Troy Robinson
Asshams Pharoah Manley
Jazzaline Ware *
Felix Kumi
Keith Harrison McLeod
Junior Prosper
Lamontez Jones
Paterson Brown
Dominic Hutchinson
Anthony Ashford
Alonzo Smith
Ashanti Cameron *
Tyree Crawford
India Kager
La’vante Biggs
Michael Lee Marshall
Jamar Clark
Richard Perkins
Nathaniel Harris Pickett
Bennie Lee Tignor
Miguel Espinal
Michael Noel
Kevin Matthews
Bettie Jones
Quintonio Legrier
Keith Childress Jr.
Keanna Mattel *
Janet Wilson
Randy Nelson
Antronie Scott
Wendell Celestine
David Joseph
Calin Roquemore
Dyzhawn Perkins
Christopher Davis
Marco Loud
Peter Gaines
Torrey Robinson
Darius Robinson
Kevin Hicks
Mary Truxillo
DeMarcus Semer
Eillie Tillman
Dana Martin *
Terrill Thomas
Sylville Smith
Terrence Crutcher
Paul O’Neal
Jamagio Jamar Berryman*
Alteria Woods
Jordan Edwards
Aaron Bailey
Ronell Foster
Itali Marlowe*
Antwon Rose II
Pamela Turner
Nikki Kuhnhausen
Amadou Diallo
Christopher Whitfield
Tydi Dansbury*
Christopher McCorvey
Eric Reason
Michael Lorenzo Dean
Pebbles “LaDime” Dime Doe *
Bailey Reeves *
Emmett Till**
Mack Charles Parker**
Herbert Lee and Louis Allen**
Cpl. Roman Ducksworth, Jr.**
Medgar Evers**
Virgil Lamar Ware**
Henry Hezekiah Dee and Charles Eddie**
Jimmie Lee Jackson**
Benjamin Brown**
Warless Jackson**
David Boone ***
Frank Stack ***
George Taylor ***
Isaac Lincoln ***
2 Unknown Negro Women, Arkansas, 1907 ***
****It is worth noting that when doing a search for women killed during the civil rights movement, most results were about Viola Gregg Liuzzo, the only white woman to be killed during the civil rights movement.
