5,000 attend Solidarity Rally at Bellingham‘s Maritime Heritage park
More than 5,000 people gathered for a Solidarity Rally Saturday afternoon, June 6, at Maritime Heritage Park in Bellingham to bring the community together “to make a stand for the injustice of a failed system,” according to organizers.
5:30 p.m. ‘Lean on me’
When the speakers ended, the crowd sang and clapped to “Lean on Me” by Bill Withers.
As the crowd streamed out of the park, organizers remained on stage and some crowd members stayed to dance to “Cupid Shuffle” by Cupid in celebration of Juneteenth, the June 19 holiday that commemorates the end of slavery in the United States.
Kristina Michele stepped up, saying she was 6 years old when Rodney King was beaten. She said at 6 she wondered if anyone was going to stop the police, and then if that would happen to her one day.
She broke down the numbers of incarceration and arrest rates for black Americans. She said there are 328.2 million people in America, and 13.4% are black.
She wants everyone to go home and listen to “My Shot” from the musical Hamilton. She said it encapsulates how she’s feeling right now.
“Stand with us. Protect us. Hear us. It is a privilege to educate yourself about racism rather than experience it,” she said.
As the crowd begins to leave, the Bellingham Police’s only tweet of the day: “Bellingham community, if you’re driving near Maritime Heritage park, please be cautious. There are many pedestrians who are walking to and from the peaceful rally. Watch the crosswalks, please. Be patient, be kind.”
Wrapping up the day, Terrence “Teejay” Morris, one of the organizers, said “this wasn’t a black rally — it’s about equality. It’s not about being black, it’s about equality. I’ve been in a pandemic my entire life,” he said.
“I want you to go home and I want you to educate yourself. That’s what I want you to do. You’ve got to challenge yourself.”
5 p.m.: ‘Want to be known’
Taryn Harris speaks, telling the crowd she is half black, half white. “Black people in this community want to be heard. They want to be known,” she said, before singing “Praise Before My Breakthrough” by Bryan and Katie Torwalt.
Speaker Megan Scott of Bellingham urged to crowd to take the day’s messages to heart. “Your support cannot be performative,” she said to cheers from the crowd.
“I am not the voice of black America. I am just one of the voices across the nation,” Scott said.
Janae Payne told a story about her mother, a strong black woman who recently died. Payne said she is a product of her mom’s hard work, determination and beauty.
“It’s our time to speak up. ... White allies lend us your privilege so we can speak louder,” she said.
She asked the crowd to silence their voices and listen so that people of color can tell their stories.
Whatcom County Executive Satpal Sidhu spoke, saying waving an American flag on the back of a pickup truck is not freedom. “Real American freedom is standing up for equal rights for all Americans. Bigotry does not make America great,” he said.
He asked the crowd to imagine if there was no video of George Floyd’s killing, or of the elderly man pushed by police in Buffalo, New York.
He said all Americans should not just shrug away police brutality as a few bad apples. When their unions condone violent actions of a few and oppose reforms, then they don’t seem to stand for the motto of “to serve and protect,” he said.
He said the different treatment of Americans because of their race or ethnicity must stop.
Sidhu, who was born in India, spoke of “liberty and justice for all,” the nation’s founding ideals. “I don’t have all the answers, but our collective voices show strength,” he said.
“We will enjoy our freedom when everyone can enjoy their freedom. Waving flags is a mockery of freedom. We need freedom from bigotry,” Sidhu said.
Another speaker, Chanan Suarez, a veteran of the Iraq war, said the system is sick, and that we need a new one. He said to remember the Stonewall riots and acknowledge that is our history.
He said for people to get involved, build movements, and that actions speak louder than words.
“We have power. We have power in numbers. ... This system would not function without us. They need us more than we need them. All power to the people,” he said.
4:30 p.m.: Standing together
Nick Lewis, a council member for Lummi Nation and veteran, said it’s good to come to the rally and stand together and see allies.
He said as a First Nations people, sometimes their voice isn’t loud enough, but together it is. He said he doesn’t have a problem with police, but that they need to honor the badge they wear for the right reasons. He said he has a problem with the system.
Lewis said there are good people in the system, but it’s hard to change it. So he ran for office. He didn’t think he wanted to be a politician, but he wanted to continue doing good. He was elected and won the last election to continue his work of changing the system.
He said people are here for systemic change. “Hate is a taught behavior. Violence is a taught behavior. If we want change, we need to change what we’re teaching them,” Lewis said. He asked people to set an example for younger generations.
Hundreds of people are listening to the speakers, standing on the wooded hillsides ringing the park and sitting on the roofs of nearby businesses. Most of the crowd are wearing masks to avoid new coronavirus contagion.
A reporter estimates the crowd could be closer to 7,000 people. That would make it the largest rally gathered since the 2017 Women’s March in Bellingham.
One of the organizers told the crowd that speakers will continue past the original end time of 5 p.m.
4 p.m.: ‘What are you doing?’
The next speaker paused for a moment of silence after an interpretive dance to Andra Day’s “Rise Up” ended with the dancer holding up a sign that said “White people brought racism to this country. You fix it.”
Western Washington University student leader Abdul Malik Ford said black lives are reduced to a hashtag. He said posting on social media is not enough. “What are you doing to affirm black lives matter?” Ford asked. He asked the crowd to ask if this was first time they had shown up in support of black lives.
Ford spoke about justice and what it means for people of color: “Justice is beautiful, justice is tough. It’s a life long battle for me. It’s a life long battle for us.”
Megan Scott spoke next. “This is America’s day of reckoning. I am not here today to not bother you. Change is uncomfortable,” she said.
She said she had been in this lifelong, and asked people not to get burned out after a week. She said white people will never understand, they can’t, but not to be afraid of that.
Scott referenced that the majority of Whatcom County residents are white. (According to 2019 U.S. Census data, Whatcom County’s 219,000 residents are 86% white, 4.6% Asian, 4% two or more races, 3.4% American Indian or Native Alaskan, 1.3% black and .03% Native Hawaiian or Pacific islander. Residents are also 9.5% Hispanic.)
White people can’t understand what it’s like to not be able to enjoy civil liberties because of skin color, she said. She said that all lives can’t matter until black lives matter. “Being a cop is an occupation. My blackness is me,” she said.
Australia Hernandez also spoke. She talked about farmworker justice, and said that they are standing together in support of black lives.
3:45 p.m.: ‘Onward and upward’
Deidre Smith said she thought a lot about what she was going to talk about. She said she didn’t want to lose anyone while speaking, and that she wanted to be safe while speaking.
Smith said when people stay silent about things like Black Lives Matter that they become complicit in the very situation the movement is trying to change.
She said maybe we’re at where we are now because we haven’t been speaking about politics and religion. “Seeing a knee to the neck of George Floyd was the straw that broke this camel’s back. That was way too much. I’m here to speak my truth without venom or without hatred”.
Smith told people to keep moving for peace, justice and unity and thanked the crowd for coming out.
3 p.m.: Killing has to stop
The event opened with a land acknowledgment and Coast Salish chant and drumming as people filled the stairs and seating from Prospect Street and a steady stream of people arrived from Holly Street.
Vernon Damani Johnson, a Western Washington University political science professor, was one of the first to speak, saying “the reason things are so bad today in regards to race, is because the structures of white supremacy in institutions are still present.”
Johnson said police kill with impunity and it has to stop. He said we’re at a juncture similar to 1968, and says that 2020 is a year like that. “We’re going to have 2020 vision in 2020” he said.
President Trump’s racism has pushed this country into a state of trauma, Johnson said. “The door has been forced open now,” Johnson said.
He added that people must get involved in efforts to reform law enforcement and the criminal injustice system, dismantle systemic racism in education, healthcare, finance, etc.
Terrance “Teejay” Morris, one of the organizers, said “We must take up the mantel against systemic racism in all of our institutions. It’s going to be a long struggle.”
Cecil Lopez said we live in a paradigm of domination and it’s time to break out of it. She said she’s asking people to look at how they’ve internalized that domination, and how we can relate to one another. She’s asking the city of Bellingham to take the lead.
She’s asked the city to look at the budget and policies that are keeping others out.
Lummi Nation member Terrence Adams drummed, sang and asked the crowd to chant “Peace, Love, Prayer” for those who are incarcerated several blocks, away up the hill, at Whatcom County Jail. He said it’s time to change the plea bargains, keeping people from housing and jobs.
Adams asking people to “stand next to us, not behind us.” he said. And he said he was proud of the crowd of for coming out to support Black Lives Matter.
2 p.m.: ‘Promote inclusiveness’
According to the event page on Facebook, People of Color community members are scheduled to stand together and speak out with victims of murder, marginalization and repression because of their skin color.
One of the event’s organizers DeeDee Davis of Bellingham, said she hoped that speakers at today’s rally would help those in attendance “be able to have empathy and feel each others’ pain,” she told The Bellingham Herald.
“We want to promote inclusiveness — that’s our thing, that’s our mission,” she said.
Even though Bellingham has a reputation for tolerance, Davis said racism lurks in more subtle ways.
“We see it all the time,” she said.
Even though Bellingham has a reputation for tolerance, Davis said racism lurks in more subtle ways.
“We see it all the time,” she said.
“Maybe not in that form (police violence). We see it in education, we see it in criminal justice — it’s killing us slowly.”
“A lot of people haven’t heard it because they don’t want to hear it. We’ve seen some progress, but if you actually live in that world, it’s few and far between.”
Elsewhere, protesters streamed into the nation’s capital Saturday, the Associated Press reported, for what was expected to be the city’s largest demonstration yet against police brutality, while George Floyd was mourned in his North Carolina hometown.
Military vehicles and officers in fatigues closed off much of downtown Washington, D.C., to traffic ahead of the planned march, which authorities estimated would attract up to 200,000 people outraged by Floyd’s death 12 days ago at the hands of police in Minneapolis.
In general, the Associated Press reports, demonstrations in the U.S. have shifted to a calmer tenor in recent days after frequent episodes of violence in the early stages. Protesters and their supporters in public office say they are determined to turn the extraordinary outpouring of anger and grief into change, notably in regard to policing policies.
In light of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the Bellingham event organizers asked anyone who plans to attend to bring their own masks and sanitizer and practice good social distancing.
No permits were issued for Saturday’s rally at Maritime Heritage Park because of limits on special events and use of city facilities prompted by the new coronavirus epidemic.
Several gatherings have been held around Bellingham over the past week, including a march on Saturday, May 30.
A vigil at the Bellingham Public Library on Friday, May 29, turned the site into a memorial for Floyd.
“We are aware of various gatherings planned, including one Saturday afternoon at Maritime Heritage Park,” Keller told The Bellingham Herald in an email.
“The city is not opposing the gathering, however,” Keller said.
Several instances of white supremacist activity have been reported over the past week in Bellingham, including Patriot Front leaflets that were found Friday at Western Washington University.
White men were seen with firearms, including long guns and pistols Friday in downtown Bellingham.
Members of the racist group Proud Boys were seen downtown, according to social media reports.
Bellingham’s Saturday rally organizers on Facebook suggested that those wanting to donate to the event should instead donate to these organizations and support BIPOC-owned businesses and support them:
▪ NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund at naacpldf.org.
▪ Movement For Black Lives at m4bl.org.
▪ Whatcom Human Rights Task Force at whrtf.org.
▪ Community to Community, or C2C, at foodjustice.org.
▪ Showing Up for Racial Justice at showingupforracialjustice.org.
▪ Northwest Community Bail Fund at nwcombailfund.org.
Julina Pyanoe provided this list of black-owned local businesses to The Herald via Facebook: Brandywine Kitchen, BusyB’s Barbershop, Calypso Kitchen, Cool Runnings Construction, Cross Auto Detail, Guud Bowls, MYNE Candle Co., Poindexter Detailing, Pure Fitness Martial Arts and Zorganics.
This story was originally published June 6, 2020 at 1:00 PM.
