NASHVILLE, TN– On a rainy Saturday in an unpaved parking lot, community leaders spoke about peace and violence. The event was organized by the Black Nashville Assembly in response to “a jump in police and community violence across our city”.
“Let us remember the people who are no longer with us because of redlining, domestic violence, police violence, the violence of gentrification and replacement,” said Theeda Murphy. She is a member of Black Lives Matter.
“We are gathered her today in a commitment to pubic safety and that does not include police because we keep us safe, Do y’all feel that?” asked Erica Perry, a community activist.
Dr. Napoleon Harris led the small crowd in a call and response chant. “We’re barely standing, about to go to pieces, screaming ‘Peace’. So we are organizing, standing together, to gather our pieces, to fight for our peace.”
“As I reflect on the final few last words of our brother George Floyd and before him Eric Garner, he said he couldn’t breathe. We need peace like we need oxygen to breathe; we need justice like we need oxygen to breathe; we need freedom like we need oxygen to breath. When those things are cut off there is no life,” said Minster Samuel X with Nation of Islam.
He said when a community has decided that enough is enough people breathe life into themselves. “That is where power comes from. “Power is in our organization,” he said.
“Are we going to do something about this? I want to see some laying down and changing justice,” said Clemmie Greenlee. Her son, nephew, and two grandsons died from gun violence.
“I’m sitting here fighting to stop the violence. I got three gang-bangers ready to put up their guns and call a truce but got five police officers ready to pull me over so I’m damned I do and damned I don’t. We can’t fight them if we don’t fight them over there,” Greenlee said.
“We ain’t shut down nothing. We ain’t changed no law. We ain’t got nobody fired. We ain’t moved nobody out of an elected official seat…we got to vote all of the corrupted folks out of their seats.”
Perry urged people to get connected with some group and get involved. “When we talk about getting an official out of office, we need to be organized to do that,” she said.
“We transform our conditions through community organizing. We renew our commitment to fight together even as our hearts are broken and channel our grief and rage into organizing,” Perry said.
Jamel Campbell-Gooch, one of the event’s organizers, circulated a voter survey asking people to weigh in on Metro’s next budget.
