'Moving forward': How Starkville, Mississippi State joined for a peaceful protest

Past and former Mississippi State athletes attended the protest, along with residents and politicians

Tyler Horka
Mississippi Clarion Ledger

STARKVILLE – They laid on their stomachs in silence.

Thousands of people, in the heat of the Mississippi sun, were face down in the green grass of the Mississippi State Amphitheater on Saturday. Morgan Gray's chilling call for help was the only sound reverberating through the grounds. 

"Please. Please. I can't breathe, officer," said Gray through a microphone on the amphitheater's stage. "Don't kill me. C'mon, man. I can't breathe. I can't breathe!" 

Those were George Floyd's last words before authorities say he was killed by a Minneapolis police officer who had his knee on Floyd's neck for eight minutes and 46 seconds on May 25.

Eight minutes and 46 seconds.

That's how long protesters laid face down on Saturday during a peaceful protest organized by a racial equality group called Starkville Stand Up, of which Gray is a member. 

It took much longer than eight minutes and 46 seconds, though, for Starkville Stand Up and its supporters to be heard in full. Saturday's protest wasn't intended to be an end-all in the fight against systemic racism in the United States.

The citizens of Starkville were just getting started. 

"I pray that we do not stop here," said Jala Douglas, a Mississippi State student and member of Starkville Stand Up who was the driving force behind the creation of Saturday's event. "This is just the beginning of this fight, y'all. We are in this together. Look to your left, to your right... It doesn't matter. We're all in this fight together." 

Protesters gather at the amphitheater on Mississippi State University's campus after they marched from Unity Park in downtown Starkville on June 6, 2020. The protest was arranged by Starkville Stand Up and was supported by various groups within the city, including the police department and MSU.

'It has to start somewhere' 

The day started before 10 a.m. when people gathered at Unity Park, a civil rights memorial in the heart of downtown Starkville. 

They were young. They were old. They were black. They were white. They wore maroon. Many of them wore black. Their shirts said "I can't breathe," "Black Lives Matter" and "Silence is Violence." 

Many of them were Mississippi State athletes. Basketball players Robert Woodard, Reggie Perry and Abdul Ado were there. So were football players Kylin Hill, Greg Eiland and plenty of their teammates. Victoria Vivians, a former Mississippi State women's basketball All-American, was on hand and outspoken. 

Mississippi State athletic director John Cohen was in attendance, and some of the coaches he employs were too. Men's basketball coach Ben Howland and softball coach Samantha Ricketts were two of them. 

They all marched down Main Street, from Unity Park to campus, a stretch of about a mile and a half. Woodard had a sign that said "Proverbs 22:2; Rich and poor have this in common; the LORD is the MAKER of them all!!!" in one hand and a dog leash in the other. 

"One protest won't change the world, but it has to start somewhere," Woodard said. "For this to be the starting point for Starkville, Mississippi, I had to be a part of it. " 

As Woodard and his dog made it down Main, a percussion band played marching tunes in the middle of the procession. At the front, people chanted loudly into megaphones. They had more than a handful of phrases, such as "No justice, No peace!" "I'm black and I'm proud!" and "Black Lives Matter!" 

Mississippi State University President Mark Keenum connected with the protesters at the front of the line shortly after they made it onto campus. He gave them thumbs up and patted them on the back as he began to march with them. 

Shortly thereafter, he took to the stage. 

"Racism is an evil. It is a sin," he said. "As a Christian, until the return of my lord and savior Jesus Christ to this earth, unfortunately we will always have evil and sin in this world. But our mission as a community, as a university, is to do all that we can to make sure that the good in our community, the good on this campus greatly overshadows the evil in this community and that it will choke it out."

'We can't ever stop moving forward' 

Multiple pastors spoke to the masses. Starkville's mayor, Lynn Spruill, did too. They were preceded and followed by members of The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) as well as a handful of legislators serving the state of Mississippi.

Spruill said she has never been more proud of Starkville and Mississippi State. The legislators told protesters that their voices had been heard and that necessary steps will be taken in Jackson to validate them. 

Kabir Karriem, a member of the Mississippi House of Representatives, said protests like Saturday's compel leaders like him to make changes that benefit the people he serves. He even said he might show up to the state capitol Monday with a piece of legislation that would call for the replacement of Mississippi's state flag, which still has a Confederate emblem on it.

"This is a perfect opportunity in our history in the state of Mississippi with our checkered past to be a model for the rest of the country," Karriem said. "We really can do some great things here." 

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Karriem was the fourth and final legislator to speak. He was followed by a Starkville Stand up member advocating for protesters to fill out voter registration cards at the back of the amphitheater. 

Douglas, one of the organizers, issued the protest's closing remarks before giving way to another reverend who sang "This Little Light of Mine" while protesters filed out. When most everyone was gone, a pile of white flower petals remained. They were arranged in the shape of a three-letter acronym. 

BLM. 

After the Starkville Justice March, a pile of flower petals remained in the grass at the Mississippi State Amphitheater. It spelled out "BLM", an acronym that stands for "Black Lives Matter."

The petals will blow away, but the hope of everyone who gathered in Starkville is that the essence of the movement never will. 

"Just keep moving forward," Woodard said. "Don't get complacent. If we get justice for one case, that's great. But we want justice for every case. We can't ever stop moving forward." 

Contact Tyler Horka at thorka@gannett.com. Follow @tbhorka on Twitter. To read more of Tyler's work, subscribe to the Clarion Ledger today!