WFHB Bloomington Community Radio
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WFHB reporters were at the Courthouse Square in downtown Bloomington this weekend covering what turned out to be one of the largest political rallies the city has seen in recent years. The Black Lives Matter rally was organized following the recent police killings of Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and Philando Castile in Minneapolis.
The event began with a march that started at the IU Sample Gates, then moved west on Kirkwood Avenue, before reaching the Courthouse Square, where the crowd filled much of the south end of the lawn.
Those were attendees at Bloomington’s Black Lives Matter rally speaking on Saturday afternoon, just before the rally officially started. At about 4 o’clock, organizers took to the stage on the south east side of the Courthouse. The first two to speak were 19-year-old Alexis Prall and 17-year-old Zoe Reed. Reed told the crowd that organizers met with local police before the rally.
The rally organizers spoke at some length about the need to work with police. At one point Prall called for a “shout out” to Bloomington Police Chief Mike Diekhoff, who could not attend the rally because he was in Washington D.C. participating in a conference on police reform.
Other speakers on Saturday offered a variety of views about police and police violence. Indiana University History professor, Amrita Myers, repeated the statement: “You cannot get good fruit from a poisoned tree.” Myers is also a host of Bring it On, WFHB’s African American public affairs show.
After Myers and several speakers, including Mayor John Hamilton, addressed the crowd, there was a break while a group of musicians prepared to perform. During that break, WFHB spoke with two local residents, Marvin Jones and Andrea Sterling, who both said they moved to Bloomington after growing up outside of Indiana. Jones spoke first, about his time in Bloomington.
Another man, named Carl, stood carrying a sign that said “prosecute the killer cops.”
The rally continued into the early evening with speakers and music. After the event was over, one of the organizers, Alexis Prall, posted a message to supporters. She said, “We could not have been happier of the result. Continue to be strong, continue to educate and continue to stand together.”
