Black Lives Matter Protests 12 June 2020

“George Floyd can’t just be another name. The knee has always been on our neck and we can’t breathe.”

A mixed crowd of people came by foot, car, and wheelchair or with crutches from all over St Albans to gather at Verulamium Park on Friday evening waving banners and chanting Black Lives Matter!

St Albans in Hertfordshire a predominately white area has never seen the like when around a 1,000 strong mixed ethnicity, children, and youth, elderly, able bodied and disabled came together in solidarity to fight for racial equality.\

Hosted by Shelley Hayes a number of people spoke and called for all races to come together to fight racial inequality and systemic racism. To seek changes in the education system and teach a decolonised history, to seek changes with policing and its targeted violence, and change societies perspective to make a balanced prospect for all.

St Albans MP Daisy Cooper spoke and promised to take the concerns raised to parliament.

The gathering ended with the crowd kneeling for 8 minutes and 46 seconds the amount of time that George Floyd had to endure the knee on his neck.

The peaceful gathering dispersed from the park to the sound of reggae music.

Andrene McDonald