Third #BlackLivesMatter protest set for Saturday in Greeley
Black Lives Matter protestors march along 47th Avenue in Greeley June 5, 2020. Photo by Joshua Polson
By Kelly Ragan
When Travis Kornegay first moved to Greeley for a teaching job about 20 years ago, he didn’t see many people who looked like him. Sometimes he felt like he might have been the only African American man in town. But Greeley felt different than his North Carolina home. His skin didn’t feel like a target the same way it did in the South.
But that doesn’t mean he left racism behind.
“Greeley is just like most towns,” Kornegay said. “There are some remarkably good things happening, and there are things we can do better as a community.”
Kornegay is helping to organize a protest Saturday, called “Greeley Unite in the Fight: Peaceful Black Lives Matter March and Vigil.”
The protest is intended to honor the life – and death – of George Floyd, a black man who died at the hands of Minneapolis police officers May 25 while uniting the community against racism and injustice.
It’s set to be the third protest in Greeley.
When Kornegay learned about Floyd’s death, he said he felt hurt and angry like everybody else.
He’s marching, he said, for the black men who were murdered. Whose voices were silenced. They were all someone’s son, husband and brother, Kornegay said, but they had their own dreams too. They wanted to aspire to the American Dream. They wanted to have a family and a career.
But, Kornegay said, they don’t get to do or have those things.
So, he’ll march – because they can’t.
Katilla Osindero talks to the crowd at the start of the protests Friday, June 5, 2020 at Monfort Park off of 47th Avenue in Greeley. Photo by Joshua Polson
Kornegay’s been thinking about whether sharing his own stories, and getting others to share theirs, would help.
Maybe if he told people about the time the time he and a friend were driving through Kentucky, people might understand the danger he faces every day.
Once Kornegay and a friend were driving through Kentucky during rush hour. They weren’t speeding, he said. They were just two young black guys driving a nice car. But they got pulled over.
When they asked why, Kornegay said, the police officers told them it was because they were driving in the passing lane.
“It was rush hour,” Kornegay said. “Everybody was in that lane.”
But they were the ones who got pulled over.
Protestors line the sidewalk along 47th Avenue by Monfort Park in Greeley Friday, June 5, 2020. Photo by Joshua Polson.
Kornegay said the police yelled at them and told them to get out of the car. Officers ordered them to put their hands up. Guns were drawn. They searched the vehicle.
His friend got really upset, Kornegay said, so he told him to calm down. This wasn’t the time or the place to make a scene.
In those situations, Kornegay said, he’s had to calculate whether to do what he has to do to survive, or to stick up for himself.
“Black people don’t’ have the luxury to sick up for themselves in those situations,” Kornegay said.
But, he said, people have been telling stories about racism for 400 years. So stories might not be enough.
“Someone said George Floyd is the Emmett Till of the digital age – and they’re right,” Kornegay said. “The question is, what is it going to take for people to realize racism shouldn’t exist? That treating another human being in such a way is not appropriate? That’s why I’m going to fight. That’s why I’m going to march.”
Details on Greeley Unite in the Fight
When: 5-7 p.m. Saturday
Where: Univerity of Northern Colorado’s University Center, 2102 10th Ave. in Greeley to Lincoln Park downtown
For more information, check out the event’s Facebook page here.