OAKWOOD — Dozens of people who gathered in Oakwood on Thursday evening for a Black Lives Matter rally chanted, held signs and took a knee and fell silent to mark the number of minutes a Minneapolis police officer kept his knee on George Floyd’s neck, killing him.
“They get it now,” the Rev. Daryl Ward, pastor emeritus, Omega Baptist Church, told our WHIO viedographer. "[It’s] important because every community is affected. When you degrade one person, you degrade everybody. Every life matters.”
Ward, among the crowd outside the Wright Public Library, 1776 Far Hills Ave., said he was at the rally as a stand-in for his son. Rally organizers had asked for his son, also a pastor, to attend the event that began at 6 p.m.
“I saw a miracle,” the senior Ward said. “I saw Oakwood having a civil rights rally. It’s a wonderful thing.”
Sister Nicole Trahan echoed Ward’s comments about the importance of the rally.
“I think it’s really important, for those of us who stand against racism, to unite our voices, show our support and our disappointment with the slowness of change,” she said.
The rally is the second to be held in Oakwood.