NEWS

Peaceful protest march held in Grovetown

Jozsef Papp
jpapp@augustachronicle.com
Ceretta Smith kneels during an eight minute moment of silence in honor of George Floyd. A march was held in Grovetown Saturday morning.

Randy LaMoss and Kenneth Givens have been friends for almost 20 years while growing up in Grovetown. On Saturday, they decided to march together against racial injustice in their community.

“We just want to show people that we are in this whole fight together, us, regular citizens and the police department. I know there is a little bit of animosity between the two and I just want to show them, especially in our community, that we can trust the police,” LaMoss said.

LaMoss said Givens actually reached out with the idea of having a march through Grovetown in protest of police brutality and racism. Givens said he wanted to do something in Grovetown before something negative occurred, which could have derailed their movement.

“I just want to make sure people of color, every race no matter who you are, where you are from, we walk together. It is not a racial issue. It is not white vs black, it’s not white vs anybody else,” Givens said. “The more that we can be together and walk together and be on the same side, the more we can accomplish and the more change we can encite.”

Grovetown Police officers guided about 50 people, as they chanted “Black Lives Matter,” “No Justice, No Peace” through the streets around city hall. Givens said they knew early on it was important to reach out to law enforcement and get them on board for the march.

“We don’t want riots to happen here, we don’t want minority business owners to be affected, we don’t want anybody to be affected like that negatively,” Givens said. “We want to unite. We want to have a positive message.”

Ceretta Smith lives in Grovetown and has been going to marches across the area for the past week, including one in Waynesboro on Saturday, where Mayor Greg Carswell presented a special proclamation declaring the first Saturday in June as George Floyd’s Day of Solidarity and Love in Waynesboro. She planned to attend a march in Thomson on Saturday night.

Smith, who is running for Georgia State Senate District 23, feels this movement has the chance to make a change. She is hoping criminal justice reform gets passed, including the hate crime bill in Georgia.

“Just like COVID-19 is unprecedented, I think we are living in unprecedented times in regards to people’s reaction to police brutality and racism. I don’t think we’ve ever seen America take the stance that it has taken against police brutality and racism,” Smith said.

Mayor Gary Jones expressed his support and satisfaction for the fact that the protest remain peaceful. He said they will continue to support peaceful protests in Grovetown.

“We were happy that this was a peaceful protest. Every person who came together were respectful and here for the same cause. We worked with the Columbia County Sheriff’s Office to help make sure the march was safe for everyone who attended,” he said in a statement. “As a City, we believe that everyone has a right for their voice to be heard in a respectful manner.”

LaMons said they haven’t decided if they plan to hold more marches and wanted to see how their first one in Grovetown would go. He said the goal is to bring the community together.

“We all see what is going on in the rest of the country. We didn’t want anything to get out of hand because it has our name attached to it and we didn’t want any of that to happen in our neighborhood,” he said. “This is where we grew up, we love this place, that’s the last thing I want to see happening here.”

Randy LaMoss, left, and Kenneth Givens during the eight minute moment of silence in honor of George Floyd.