Students march for BLM on Constitution Day

The constant sound of hundreds of protestors’ feet scratching Main Street’s pavement is sporadically interrupted by booming, emotional shouts. Several group chants break out as protestors bellow in unison. “Respect existence or expect resistance!”, “We need change!”, are among a few of the cries. Some honor the cause with silence, many cut the air with signs that implore for equality. However protestors express themselves, a central message reigns – “Black Lives Matter”.

A few dozen students, CSC staff and community members marched for the Black Lives Matter movement last Thursday. The crowd met at the CSC clocktower outside of the Student Center and treaded past the front of Old Admin before heading south on Main Street, where they were escorted by the Chadron Police Department, toward Dawes County Courthouse. From there, the protesting mass flocked to Mary E. Smith-Hayward Square, where they gathered at a rocky speaking platform. 

There, students spoke to the crowd about police brutality. Some spoke about personal experiences of being harassed because of their ethnicity. One student, sophomore Justin Cauley of Inglewood, California, shared he and his friends’ experiences of being racially profiled at grocery stores, as employees followed them around suspiciously. Another student told a story he recalled from childhood, in which he and his father were pulled over and assaulted by an officer. Even speakers who hadn’t experienced discrimination simply pronounced their support for the event, and the need for equality.

Jordan Morris, sophomore of Apple Valley, Minnesota, organized the event.

“I’m from Minnesota, so that’s where everything first happened with George Floyd,” she said. “I noticed they did a protest out here during the summer, but not a lot of students were here, there weren’t as many people. So I figured doing one during the school year, getting everybody’s attention and bringing light to the situation would be a good idea.”

Morris added she’s noticed a trend in which the BLM movement is either all over social media or not discussed at all.

 “I think we just need to bring light to the situation, just all day everyday,” she said. “I thought it was amazing. There were a lot of people here tonight. A lot of people used their voice tonight. They came up and spoke, they told their stories. It was really great and I think it’ll do good things for our school after this.”

Morris explained that organizing the peaceful protest wasn’t a difficult process.

“At first I just thought of the idea and made a flier before I talked to anybody. Then I e-mailed Ted (Tewahade, CSC title lX coordinator) the next day and said ‘Hey, do you want to meet, I have an idea’. 

And then right away he was like ‘Yes, this is great let’s do it.’”

Tewahade then worked with administrators to get permission and put up signs advertising the march, according to Morris.

“Then I just called the chief of police to make sure that everything was OK and (to ask) if he’d be here,” Morris said.

Dawes County Sheriff Karl Daily, stood on the steps of the courthouse with several deputies because it was within their jurisdiction, whereas Main Street is controlled by the CPD. Daily explained they were present in case the protest turned violent, like they have in several cities across the U.S. 

“As long as everybody behaves,” he said, “we’ll be fine.”

Morris didn’t expect any violence during the preordained-peaceful protest.

“I trust the students at Chadron to not do any of that,” she said, “because this is a peaceful protest and we are a pretty peaceful school and we are very supportive of each other. I know it is a very conservative state, but I did not expect anybody to be disrespectful or negative in any type of way, just because we are here to be peaceful, we are just here to use our voices.”

After the killings of Ahmaud Arbery in February by a retired police officer and Breonna Taylor in March during a no-knock raid, the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin in May sparked the bomb that exploded into country-wide protests and rioting. Several CSC protestors sported signs with the names of these victims, as well as a slew of others.

Cauley praised his close friend, Morris, for organizing the event. He even referred to her as the G.O.A.T. 

“It means a lot to see that we have students of many ethnicities that support our culture,” he said proudly. “This is the start to something great.”