Demo special: Felixstowe Black Lives Matter organiser hails impact after hundreds protest
By Derek Davis
20th Jun 2020 | Local News
They kept their distance but came in their hundreds, black, white, asian, mixed race, gay, straight, transgender, young old, rich, poor, middle class, working class, and no doubt a variety of religions.
Felixstowe's wide and diverse community demonstrated its support for the Black Lives Matters movement in a peaceful, poignant and powerful protest, with speakers baring their souls, debunking myths, explaining concisely that racism exists here just as much as it does in America where a policeman kept his knee on a man's neck until he gasped his last breathe.
They explained that of course, all lives matter, but until systemic racism ends and black lives really do matter, then all lives will continue to not matter.
That is the point of the movement, and the cliched, lazy mantra of 'all lives matter' continues to miss the point. as more than one speaker pointed out.
Another strong theme from the various speakers was more education is needed, including teaching black history in its own right, and not just how it is intertwined with white history.
Speakers of various ages and backgrounds took a good 90 minutes to tell their stories and relay their message that things need to change.
One person, who gave his name as Alan - a mixed race gay man, told Nub news: "Perhaps they were speaking to the converted, but the message was eloquently put and while it may too late for some, the future can, and judging by the amount of young people here, will be better for all BAME and LGBT people in the future, thanks to events like this
"I cannot speak for the rest of the country, but Felixstowe today has been quite brilliant, a bit of a revelation really, and the people who put it together should be very proud."
Throughout the speeches and then on the march along Felixstowe seafront the crowd kept their social distancing, sticking within their small family groups or friendship bubbles, as set out by government guidelines.
The police monitored the whole day, but kept a discreet and light touch approach and no issues were reported. One officer accompanied the marchers the whole way after staying through the speeches and had no need to intervene, other than to liaise with the organisers.
One of those organisers Vicky Baker' own eight-year-old son Archie spontaneously stepped up to make the shortest, but a very telling speech, when he told the hundreds of people still left at the end, 'racism is wrong, it has to stop'.
Fighting back tears Vicky Nub News: "I'm overwhelmed, I have barely stopped crying.
"It was everything we as organisers wanted and more "A lot of good points were made at the speeches, we could not put a time limit on it because once people got that mic and started talking, the passion took over all their issues and it was hard to compact that into a 10 minute speech. "Everyone that spoke were amazing, everyone that turned up are amazing and I'm extremely proud of the way the whole day has gone." There were concerns before the event about a possible flashpoint at the memorial on the seafront. A group of ex-sevicemen mustered at the memorial but there were no incidents. Some speakers pointed out at the main gathering how their ancestors had fought in the World Wars and had nothing but respect for the memorial, and hoped that respect would be reciprocated. The organisers met with some of those guarding the memorial before the event, allayed their fears, laid a tribute of their own and swapped contact details. Vicky said: "We wanted this to be a peaceful and respectful protest and that is what it was. "All different walks of lives, genders, sexualities races, ages, we had a bit of everything." All the speakers had connection with Felixstowe, and not all of them had a positive time growing up in the town, so there were concerns at how the event would be received, with some nasty, ill-educated comments made on social media beforehand. However the turn out spoke volumes and Vicky admitted she was pleasantly surprised. "This has restored my faith in Felixstowe," she said. "We were feeling a bit hurt by what was being said on social media, but this just proved there are amazing people in this town. "Those others are absolutely entitled to their opinion but these here today said it all - they were amazing." Scroll arrow right on top picture to see more.
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