WARNER ROBINS, Ga. — Around 200 people gathered in Warner Robins to protest violence and injustice against African Americans, including George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor.
The group began in the Walmart parking lot on Watson Boulevard, said a prayer, then peacefully marched to the Houston County Galleria.
People like Corey Gee say they want justice and for their voices to be heard.
"It's pain. It's decades of pain, and it's hard to really explain it all, but it really is decades of pain."
Gee says he is looking forward to having a meeting with Warner Robins Police Chief John Wagner to discuss what steps they can take as a community to move forward.
"It’s important for anybody that wants to put action to come out here and show their support," says Gee. "Obviously, as African Americans, we’re trying to be peaceful right now. We see a lot of people that are not doing things peaceful, so we want to come out here and build that relationship with the police."
Tawanna Preston says she brought her two sons and nephews with her to the march.
"I feel like it’s very important because we need the justice. We need the equal opportunity. Black lives matter," says Preston. "I want them to feel like they are equal to anybody else. They shouldn’t be discriminated by the color of their skin."
Ramonica Oxley came out to march with Preston.
"It’s very important as white people that we don’t show silence for this, for the brutality of black and brown people. It’s super-important that we show up here as white people to say, 'We stand with you and we stand for justice,'" she says.
Imani Wainwright held her "Black Lives Matter" flag high as she walked towards the Galleria.
"It’s important for me to be out here as an American exercising my First Amendment right because we are letting people know that we as blacks are tired of being killed in the street," she says. "Not only are we being killed, but our murderers are getting away with no justice, and that is not the American way."
The Fort Valley graduate says she was glad to see people of all backgrounds marching with her.
"Black people, white people, Hispanic people, and most importantly, we’re not being violent. We’re being very, very peaceful. That’s the most important part, and we are letting our voice known that we are tired of being killed," says Wainwright. "Hopefully, this will get people’s attention because we are tired of being slaughtered in the streets."
Like Wainwright, Christopher Doomes, says he was happy with the turnout.
"Until we acknowledge what is going on, until we are willing to remove what is going on, we’re going to keep seeing the same thing and people are tired," says Doomes. "That’s why you see people from every ethnicity out here walking and chanting and just saying what they believe because people are tired as a nation."
He says as a Christian and a black man, he knows that we all have it in us to cohabitate.
"We can’t have one race turning against another and things of that nature, you know, because a house divided against itself cannot stand," says Doomes. "Like my sign says, for so long in this country, we have just trimmed the branches of racism, but it’s time for us to cut the root out."
Vircy Ferguson says this is not her first experience marching for justice.
"I marched and went to jail in the '60s. My mother was Ada Lee, who was a civil rights icon."
But she says the fact that she is still marching in 2020, it shows racism "is still alive today."
"We still have a ways to go," says Ferguson.
Tuesday, she came with her grandson Javier Ferguson. She says that makes three generations in her family taking a stand and protesting.
As for her grandson's take on the march?
"I loved it. You know, coming together in solidarity, standing up for something that is right, for justice… it was beautiful," says Rodriguez.
Both Centerville and Warner Robins Police officers blocked parts of the road to keep traffic away from the protesters.
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