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Thousands Take Part In Fourth Of July March In Downtown Nashville

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Samantha MaxWPLN News
Thousands of people marched through the streets of downtown Nashville in an Independence Day demonstration against racial injustice and police brutality.
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This post was updated at 1:19 p.m.

Thousand of demonstrators marched through downtown Nashville in a Fourth of July march against racial injustice.

The two-hour protest organized by Teens 4 Equality appeared to draw a smaller crowd than a similar march a month ago. But the July heat didn’t deter packs of demonstrators carrying water bottles and breathing heavy through sweat-covered masks.

The event went off without incident, though 55 demonstrators were arrested afterward by state troopers while trying to enter the grounds of the Tennessee State Capitol. They were charged with criminal trespassing.

The march began at Bicentennial Mall and wound its way through the streets of downtown Nashville. Unlike in other recent protests, the crowd did not pass through Lower Broadway, where demonstrators have been met by police in riot gear.

But as the group marched through side streets in the tourism district, they encouraged visitors to join them, chanting, “Out of the bar and into the streets!” Several onlookers filmed the procession with their cellphones. Others passing by on electric scooters muttered words of disapproval and watched from the edge. One group chatted with police officers closing off the street.

As marchers wove their way back toward the Capitol, they stopped outside of War Memorial Plaza to commemorate the lives of Black people who have died in police shootings, including Nashville’s Jocques Clemmons and Daniel Hambrick.

“Me and my family want justice for Daniel,” Hambrick’s mother, Vickie Hambrick, told the crowd. Then she thanked Sheila Clemmons Lee, Clemmons’ mother, for reaching out after her son was killed two years ago and standing by her side ever since.

“I love you,” Hambrick said, then wrapped her arms around Lee for a long, tearful embrace.

Later, the crowd knelt on the ground for a moment of silence. Organizers lit candles and laid sunflowers and roses beside photos of the two Nashville natives, along with George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and others whose names have made national headlines in recent weeks.

Organizers read memorials from their cellphones, tears streaming down their cheeks as fellow protesters hugged them, held their hands and cheered them on from the street.

But the event also included a moment of joy. As the march neared its end outside the Capitol, demonstrators were greeted with trumpets, saxophones and beating drums.

A dozen musicians, some wearing Black Lives Matter gear and others donning red, white and blue, filled the street with music. Protesters sang, danced and waved their signs in the air while several dozen state troopers watched from the hill above.

Trumpet player Andrew Golden gathered the group together to both support the movement and give musicians a chance to perform for the first time in months.

“It’s pretty special to be a part of that,” he said. “I think a lot of people need this, given the dire situation that we’re in with racial justice and the global pandemic that we have. So, it’s really nice to witness it and be a part of it. Just to spark as much joy as you can in people.”

 

Arrests afterward

Following the march, protesters spilled over the ledge that blocks Capitol Hill from the sidewalk as troopers pushed forward, zip ties at the ready. A crowd watching from the across the street booed as officials tore down a sign demonstrators had attached to a guardrail, which read: “Defund Police Divest Prisons Care Not Cages.”

Troopers began making arrests when protesters attempted to breach metal barriers closing off the Capitol, a Tennessee Highway Patrol spokesman said.

“The Capitol grounds were clearly marked closed with digital signboards and paper signs,” Lt. Bill Miller wrote in a prepared statement. “Troopers issued several notices with bullhorns to the protestors that the Capitol grounds were closed. Troopers also instructed the violators to exit the property or they would be arrested. The violators began throwing water and other objects at troopers and then locked legs and arms.

“Please let me stress to you, we did not want this to happen. This was a clear provocation by those looking to instigate trouble. These actions came on the heels of a peaceful, well organized demonstration and did not have to happen.”

Next steps for demonstrators

More than a month has passed since Floyd was killed by a Minneapolis police officer, sparking protests nationwide. And next week will mark seven years since a jury acquitted the neighborhood watchman who shot 17-year-old Trayvon Martin while walking unarmed near his home in Florida, inspiring the hashtag that launched the Black Lives Matter movement.

WPLN News asked more than 20 protesters what they thought the next steps should be for the Black Lives Matter movement. Some wanted more training for police officers and more thorough vetting of recruits’ social media and past records. Others said change needed to start with the president and encouraged other young people to turn out the vote.

“I hope that it goes all the way up to federal government, where we can put things into law,” said Brandon Hall, 18, who had never been to a protest before.

Having watched others on TV, he said the demonstrations felt even bigger in person and hoped the crowds could change hearts and minds.

“Even if they were against the movement or against what the movement stood for, they can realize, ‘Oh wow. You know, this is actually a movement about, you know, helping everybody, really,” Hall said.

Several protesters expressed optimism about the future, but they also acknowledged that more work lay ahead to address racial injustice — work some said would take more than tearing down statues or changing street names.

“There needs to be more protests and more gatherings, because I don’t want this to be something that just we all care about today and then, a week from now, nobody cares,” said spoken word poet Clayton Oglesby. “We need to continue to have these difficult conversations.”

Samantha Max is a Report for America corps member.

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