More than 10,000 Atlantans peacefully protested police misconduct, racial injustice

‘Sometimes that grief looks like prayer and song in church... Other times it looks like feet in the street’

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Atlantans angered by the deaths of Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge and Philando Castile in suburban Minneapolis took to the streets every night over the weekend in protest. On July 8, around 10,000 people marched through Downtown streets for the second night in a row as part of a peaceful protest against police injustice. And although protesters blocked traffic and faced off with law enforcement, only two people were arrested.

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People organized the largest march thus far in Atlanta against police misconduct after the recent killings. After meeting at the National Center for Human and Civil Rights, supporters on Friday headed south through Centennial Olympic Park to the CNN Center, chanting and picketing in a call for police accountability. The crowd looped back to the civil and human rights museum before many supporters kicked off what NAACP volunteers labeled a “rogue” protest.


Roughly 2,000 protesters marched towards the interstate, against the wishes of Mayor Kasim Reed and Atlanta Police Chief George Turner. A barricade of Georgia State Troopers met the crowd at the Williams Street on-ramp to I-75/85.

The standoff there lasted more than five hours. An 18-wheeler and a tow truck attempting to enter the freeway were halted by protesters. Some climbed on top of the 18-wheeler. Others crowded around the tow truck, which initially tried to maneuver through the protest. Atlanta Police helped the driver reverse the tow truck down Ivan Allen Jr. Boulevard, back the way he came. The semi driver left his truck amidst the crowd.

Out of thousands of protesters, state troopers arrested just two people during Friday’s march, according to 11Alive. Atlanta City Councilman Kwanza Hall told Creative Loafing the protesters never should have marched toward the highway. Mayor Kasim Reed, who gave a press conference shortly after the standoff near the interstate, encouraged protesters to exercise their constitutional rights but said Martin Luther King, Jr., “would never take a freeway.” Social media took notice of the comment

NAACP Georgia President Francys Johnson told CL that the Downtown march served as an opportunity for people of all races, ages, and sexual orientations to peacefully express their grief “about the thousands of bodies of black and brown people in the streets.”

“Sometimes that grief looks like prayer and song in church,” he said. “Other times it looks like feet in the street.”

Johnson denounced Thursday’s police shootings in Dallas, where one sniper assassinated five officers and injured seven others before being killed by police. He said the debate stirred by the shootings “only galvanized us, strengthened our resolve.”

“The killing of police officers for who they are is wrong,” he said. “And the killing of black people and brown people is also wrong. The killing of gays and foreigners is wrong. We’re here to stand against violence.”


Johnson called for Gov. Nathan Deal, U.S. Sens. David Perdue and Johnny Isakson to “get off their asses” and pass measures to reform law enforcement, such as body camera requirements, no-knock warrant restrictions, and other proposals. If they’d do that, he said, “there’d be less blood in the streets.” He also said NAACP has had a reform proposal floating around Congress for the past 20 years.

Despite the few cans and bottles tossed, Friday’s festivities were largely peaceful. A handful of self-proclaimed Crips and Bloods came to the NAACP’s march, where they were seen tying blue and red bandanas together in solidarity against police violence.

“We’ve been killing ourselves,” said Ali, holding a blue bandana tied to another protester’s, which was red. “Today is about unity, coming together. When you get 20,000 Bloods and 20,000 Crips coming together, we can stop that black-on-black violence. Our problem isn’t each other. It’s police killing us.”

One Atlanta artist who said his name was Zeeq told CL he thinks the large number of people congregating for this cause shows potential for change. But that passion, he said, needs to subsist long after the marches and protests end.

“We need to act. We need to do this every day,” he said. “We need to block roads until, instead of having a ‘hood or a ghetto, we can have a community.” 

A Saturday night protest in Atlanta resulted in approximately 10 arrests. Hundreds of people also marched throughout Downtown, stopping by City Hall and the Gold Dome, on Sunday night and into the morning. APD says three people were arrested during that march.

a class=”wiki” href=”/atlanta/atlantans-take-the-streets-to-protest-killings-by-police/Slideshow/17423663” rel=”“>View CL’s gallery of the protests