Video, Photos: “Hundreds of Community Members Rolled Out Across Arlington” Saturday in “Ride for Black Lives”

Thanks to Matt Royer, Alex Sakes, Arlington for Justice, etc. for the following photos, video and accounts of yesterday’s “Ride for Black Lives” in Arlington. As Alex Sakes writes, Saturday afternoon “hundreds of community members rolled out across Arlington County to take part in Arlington for Justice’s Ride for Black Lives“:

“…[riding] 13 miles across town in an educational ride though numerous Black historical landmarks such as: the Cherrydale Drug Fair (home to numerous sit-ins against racial segregation in the 1960s), Stratford Jr. High School (the first public school in Virginia to desegregate), and Arlington County Fire Station 8 (the county’s first Black-operated fire station)…The ride culminated at Courthouse Plaza with impassioned speeches from: Yolande Kwinana, Atima Omara, & Amanda Lukoff  (AFJ), Ola GP, Brad Haywood (Justice Forward Virginia), Whytni Kernodle  & Zakiya Worthey (The Black Parents of Arlington), Micaela Pond (WofA), S Symone Walker (Symone for Students), Delegate Alfonso Lopez, Eric Lotke, and Celia Slater (Moms Demand Action – Arlington).

We are just 37 days away from the most consequential election in American history and it is imperative that we turn out in record fashion. However, it as equally imperative that we continue to exercise that same energy at the state legislative and county government level. We cannot continue with business as usual when we face gross inequities in our own backyard and far across our Commonwealth…”

Exactly. Also, as Del. Alfonso Lopez (D-Arlington/Fairfax) argued, “in Virginia, the home of the Confederacy, we are now pushing legislation that is leading the country” (Lopez noted 37 bills that House Dems have sent to the State Senate, including bills “banning the use of neck restraints”; “prohibiting no-knock search warrants”; “empowering the AG to conduct pattern of practice investigations of police forces”; “demilitarizing police departments”; creating a statewide Marcus Alert system; “mandating the duty of one officer to report the misconduct of another officer”). And Del. Lopez urged everyone to vote and to “send a resounding message” in this election – the most important in our lifetimes – that what’s going on “is not ok.”