For many, the Fourth of July was not a day to celebrate but a day to rise up against the “hypocritical holiday.” Marches and protests took place throughout the city, including Clayton, North St. Louis City, Shaw and Ferguson. Protestors also shut down the streets in front of the Florissant Police Department, as they have for weeks.
The Universal African Peoples Organization (UAPO) organized a Black Men Rally and March at 4 p.m. at the St. Louis County government building in Clayton.
“As a historic reminder, it was on July 4, 1776, that a group of 56 white men of the 13 colonies signed the historic document that they would be free of the rule of other white men in England,” said Zaki Baruti, president of UAPO. “At the time of the signing of this document, the land of indigenous people (racially mislabeled as Indians) had been stolen and was being stolen to create the land base for the United States.”
Baruti called it a hypocritical holiday because black people were enslaved and even white women’s equal rights were denied, yet the white men were fighting for their freedom.
“This is a universal cry,” said Farrakan Shegog, while blocking an intersection in the Flora Place neighborhood. “At this current hour at 5:30 p.m., there are organized actions in Clayton, Florissant, Ferguson, North St. Louis, University City and at Washington University. All going on simultaneously right now. And the cry is always the same — Black Lives Matter.”
Shegog and about 100 people marched through the Shaw neighborhood in South St. Louis City to denounce police brutality. The focus of the action was on VonDerrit Myers Jr., who was shot and killed in that neighborhood on Oct. 8, 2014. Then-off-duty St. Louis city police officer Jason Flanery was not charged. However, attorney Jerryl Christmas said that the case is “unfinished business” for St. Louis.
“A lot of things that happened several years ago but when we look back on now, things are a lot clearer,” he said. “It’s more substantive.”
Flanery was working as private security for the Flora Place neighborhood the night he killed Myers, and as the march winded through the street, protestors called on neighbors to come out of their houses, and “into the streets.” Several did join, or came out and showed support from their porches.
The group ended the action by shutting down the intersection at Grand and Russell boulevards and holding eight minutes and 46 seconds of silence for George Floyd.
“It’s the white privilege in Flora Place that allowed that to happen,” Christmas said of Myer’s shooting death. “If Flanery had been on Flora Place, it wouldn’t have happened. He was three blocks over harassing African-American men. While we still continue to move forward, justice delayed is not justice denied.”
Christmas also noted that African Americans were enslaved on July 4, 1776.
“But we were in revolution mode, and we want to continue that,” he said. “From this point, the Fourth of July will always represent a day of action. It’s going to get bigger and bigger.”
