Vigil held in Dover over killing of man in police custody
Organizer said event was intended to bring people of all races together
Organizer said event was intended to bring people of all races together
Organizer said event was intended to bring people of all races together
Hundreds gathered at a vigil Monday night in Dover after days of demonstrations in New Hampshire and across the country over the killing of George Floyd while in police custody.
Protests over the weekend from Manchester to Conway stayed peaceful, but there were eruptions of violence in some demonstrations in other cities across the country.
Organizer Palmira Wilson said the message is a positive one, how people of all races have much more in common than what divides them.
"It's not black versus white," Wilson said. "It's everyone versus racism."
Floyd was killed one week ago. A Minneapolis police officer has been charged with murder, and three others are under investigation.
"The vigil is to honor all the people that recently died and just because of things that have been happening in the community," Wilson said. "It's a peaceful way to bring everybody together."
Wilson, who will be a senior at Dover High School next year, organized the vigil with friends. Their message is that we are all one, and she is hoping people of all races show up.
"Like, white people come in and support us and just be there with us," she said. "That's the main point here."
"We are all one human race," said Rogers Johnson, president of the Seacoast chapter of the NAACP. "We all, as John Kennedy said, inhabit the same small earth, breathe the same air, bleed the same blood."
Johnson was the featured speaker at the vigil.
"If I accept you for who you are, if I accept everyone for who they are, then it becomes very difficult to hate someone," Johnson told WMUR before the vigil.
Johnson said he has watched the riots going on across the country with sadness and said they are diverting people from the real issue: what happened to Floyd.