“Here’s where the chase began,” Cheyanne Green said. “This is where it started, y’all.”
When more than 50 protestors assembled at Lillian and Riverview on Tuesday, October 11, the sky looked as if it was going to do its worst. Dark clouds and drizzle appeared ready to give way to thunderstorms, but the idea of calling it a night never entered the many side conversations about the weather as they waited for the action to get started.
Trash bags were distributed. They became makeshift raincoats and hair bonnets as organizers gave instruction on what the evening would entail.
The plan was to follow the last route Anthony Lamar Smith would ever take. The sky was restless, but not a single person fell back as they proceeded with the 1.3-mile walk. Unlike other marches, there were no police to follow them and redirect traffic. A few designated drivers made a caravan, and crept along to clear the path.
“Rain, shine, sleet, snow, hell no, we won’t go,” they chanted as the rain came down.
They blocked Riverview and West Florissant with their usual tactic of making a circle. As they proceeded down West Florissant, many drivers honked in solidarity. Other motorists honked for them to get out of the way.
Several patrons of the China Chop Suey near Goodfellow and West Florissant looked on while they waited for their orders to be called. Some expressed solidarity.
“I know that’s right,” a woman with bright red hair yelled as she made her way into the restaurant. She raised her fist and chanted along in sync with the group of protesters as they shouted, “Black lives matter.”
Wet, cold and undeterred, protestors made it to Acme and West Florissant. They held a moment of silence. Just before, a few gave remarks.
“This is the place where Jason Stockley executed Anthony Lamar Smith,” Green said. “He said ‘I’m going to kill this mf’ – and that’s what he did. Each time you guys come out here, it’s not for nothing. We are making a change – we are making a difference.”
Green handed the megaphone to Cori Bush.
“Jason Stockley felt like Anthony Lamar Smith’s life wasn’t valuable enough for him to continue to move on. Since we have that opportunity, we must use it to hold the police accountable. We must not let them snatch another life from us,” Bush said.
“I don’t know if you are paying enough attention to the fact that a life was taken where you are standing – by someone who took an oath saying, ‘I’m going to serve you and I’m going to protect you.’ But Jason Stockley said he was going to take Anthony Lamar Smith’s life and he did in this very spot– and that’s why we’re out here.”
As they observed three minutes of silence, the only sound was the crackling of those trash bag raincoats. The mildewed smell from the dilapidated building behind them blew in with each chilly breeze that accompanied the drizzle.
Just after their silence fell, a powerful voice – one everyone recognized – began to blast from a sound system.
“Before the victory is won, some will be misunderstood and called bad names and dismissed as rabble-rousers and agitators, but we shall overcome. And I’ll tell you why we shall overcome – because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.”
A white mini-van, one of the those leading the protest vehicle caravan, began playing audio of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “We Shall Overcome” speech.
“We shall overcome because Carlyle is right. No lie can live forever! We shall overcome because William Collin Bryant is right. Truth crushed to earth will rise again!” Dr. King thundered.
“We shall overcome because James Russel Lowell is right. ‘Truth forever on the scaffold, wrong forever on the throne.’ Yet that scaffold sways the future. And behind the dim unknown standeth God within the shadows, keeping watch above his own! we shall overcome because the Bible is right! ‘You shall reap what you sow!’
“We shall overcome! Deep in my heart, I do believe we shall overcome! And with this faith, we will go out and adjourn the counsels of despair, and bring new light into the dark chambers of pessimism, and we will be able to rise from the fatigue of despair to the buoyancy of hope. And this will be a great America! We will be the participants in making it so!”
As with every action, they ended with the words of Assata Shakur: “It is our duty to fight for our freedom. It is our duty to win. We must love and support each other. We have nothing to lose but our chains.”
Ebony Williams said those chains include trolls behind those keyboards – and the people who aren’t willing to protest.
“People are going to try to bash us for what we are doing – and it’s going to get overwhelming because we are only human and we have emotions,” Williams said. “Those chains are all of those people who are criminalizing us. We are the heroes. We have to be the voice of those people who are too scared to stand up – those people who are dead and can’t stand up. We are doing the real work.”
Along the route, they featured a new chant that said, “Tell them your demands, y’all gon’ stop killin’ us.”
“That’s the only message,” Williams said. “We are taking control of our lives. If that means that we have to march every day so they can hear us, then that’s what we have to do. But don’t ever get too tired, because they are not getting tired of putting us in this situation.”
