Hundreds march at Charlotte’s Freedom Park in fourth night of Floyd protests

Hundreds of people gathered in Freedom Park Monday evening to protest the death of George Floyd in police custody in Minnesota, in a fourth day of Charlotte demonstrations that spread beyond uptown into the city’s more upscale neighborhoods.

The crowd at Freedom Park gathered for a “justice walk,” drawing young families with children as well as people in their 20s and 30s. Mecklenburg County Sheriff Garry McFadden walked through those gathered and handed out face masks, a reminder of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

The protests in Charlotte started Friday and built momentum over the weekend, prompted by a viral video depicting a white Minneapolis police officer putting his knee on Floyd’s neck and keeping it there.

Floyd, who was African American, can be heard on the video saying “I can’t breathe.” He died a short time later. The officer was fired and later charged with third-degree murder.

Kass Ottley, one of the event’s organizers with Seeking Justice CLT and Charlotte Uprising, said that protesters came to the Dilworth/Myers Park neighborhood to wake up people with privilege.

“It’s one thing to see a demonstration on television, it’s another to see it in your backyard,” Ottley said.

Ottley, who is black, said that white people in the crowd have to have hard conversations with family and people in their lives.

“It’s not enough to be here with us, you need to carry this spirit everywhere you go,” Ottley said.

Carolina Panthers players Shaq Thompson and Tre Boston joined the Freedom Park gathering, which moved through the neighboring residential streets. Some came out of their houses to watch as demonstrators passed by, while others passed out water to the crowd. Other Panthers players in attendance included Andre Smith and Chris Manhertz.

Protesters chanted “black lives matter” and George Floyd’s name, as well as the names of other black people killed by police, including Danquirs Franklin, Keith Lamont Scott, and Breonna Taylor.

At the intersection of Selwyn Avenue and Queens Road, demonstrators in the march from Freedom Park knelt and sat for nine minutes, the amount of time Officer Derek Chauvin had his knee on Floyd’s neck. They chanted “I can’t breathe” and “Mama,” which Floyd can be heard saying on a video recording before his death.

Megan Patton and Madison Ingram both made shirts bearing the phrases “black lives matter” and “I can’t breathe.” Patton said that as a white woman, she would never experience harassment and other treatment that many of her non-white friends would.

“If there’s anything we can do to spread awareness, it’s kind of what we’re trying to do, because we’ll never know, we’ll never experience it,” she said. “It’s just to support them. So they know we’re with them.”

The march wound back to Freedom Park nearly three hours after it began, ending with a moment of silence. Organizers asked the crowd to think of black Americans killed by police or while in custody, as well as the families they left behind.

Caroline Grego, a professor of history at Queens University of Charlotte, said she needed to join the Freedom Park demonstration because it was happening in the university’s neighborhood.

“I think it’s really important to have these protests in neighborhoods like Myers Park because it’s so white and so privileged,” Grego said. “It’s definitely a diverse crowd. White people in Charlotte need to be coming out for these things too, and there’s no time like the present to start.”

Paige Childers said the Freedom Park march was the first protest she had attended. While she struggled to process the recent events at first, she said she wanted to join the demonstrations to take concrete action in response.

“I needed to get involved,” Childers said. “I’ve been physically sick for the past few days because, it’s just been a lot. I feel overwhelmed with such unity that everybody has. It’s just beautiful, period.”

Police stood by the protests on motorbikes and bicycles, but did not intervene.

SouthPark protest

Earlier on Monday, in an unusual move, protesters denouncing police brutality marched in SouthPark through one of Charlotte’s most upscale shopping districts.

Dozens of demonstrators walked past SouthPark Mall, shops and office buildings. They carried signs that read “No justice, no peace” and “Black Lives Matter” and “Stop Killing Black People.”

At one point, the SouthPark group stopped at a busy intersection outside the mall, kneeled and began chants with Floyd’s name. Cars passing by honked their horns in support.

One woman, speaking into a megaphone at SouthPark, told protesters that her father died in state custody in April 2015, a couple weeks before her birthday.

“I anticipated (his release) for six years,” she said. “That’s why I have all this rage. I can’t let another person suffer this loss.”

The demonstration in SouthPark was different because of its location. Protests in Charlotte are usually uptown — including most that took place over the weekend — or in north and west Charlotte.

This story was originally published June 1, 2020 at 6:46 PM.