MEMPHIS, Tenn. — It’s been a week of Black Lives Matter protests in Memphis. Many are letting their signs over racial injustice speak for them.
“We’re not getting the justice we deserve,” said protester Brooke Benjamin. “That’s really what inspired me to write this because we’re getting killed and we’re not getting the proper justice that any other person would get.”
Benjamin joined a little over a hundred in Memphis Wednesday night. Her message is “stop killing us.”
Roy Mays held up his sign at the I AM A MAN plaza on Hernando Street before a protest lead by Pastor DeVante Hil.
“The only way that I feel I can enact change in our country is to vote and to vote on policies that affect us on a local, state and federal level.”
People of all backgrounds and colors came together in unity to support George Floyd, who died after having a heart attack while being restrained by a Minneapolis officer.
“There’s been messaging saying that black people are disposable and that they’re a threat,” said protester Victoria Washington. “We need to have counter images that show that black people are not a threat. They’re actually beautiful and human just like everybody else.”
Washington was displaying a sign drawn by her friend Caryn Sheets at the protest.
“Whether it’s donating, whether it’s speaking, whether it’s organizing or whether it’s marching,” commenter Sheets. “It’s important and it’s our civil duty to stand up for those of us who are not being heard and not being treated correctly.”
Behind the Signs: See protesters’ signs and hear their messages
Many are letting their signs over racial injustice speak for them.