Black Lives Matter Marches In Morristown Despite Rain

MORRISTOWN, NJ—Searing heat and a midday thunderstorm didn't stop nearly 150 people from marching in Black Lives Matter's "Liberation Homecoming" event on Saturday afternoon in Morristown.

"The rain can't stop us," said Rev. Keion Jackson, of Jersey City. "But neither did slavery. Here we are, still dying. Now what?"

It was the group's last march in a summer that included multiple protests and teach-ins all over Morris County.

The skies opened up not long after the march began around 3 p.m. As the marchers moved down Martin Luther King Jr. Street in the rain, they chanted "de-fund the police" and "black power." Many carried homemade signs demanding an end to systemic racism and police brutality.

Nearly everyone was wearing a mask and the participants attempted to social distance at times. The procession was led by banners for Black Lives Matter and co-sponsor Wind of the Spirit Immigration Resource Center.

Several volunteer legal observers walked on the sidewalk with the demonstrators and there was a police presence, mostly at a distance, throughout the route.

The march stopped often for activists, including BLM Morristown founder T’Anna Kimbrough, to speak and for the protesters to chant the names of victims of police brutality. Several times, the group repeated Amani Kildea's name, and many renewed their call for the state attorney general to take over the investigation into Kildea's June death in a Morristown park.

When the activists stopped in front of the Horseshoe Tavern on Speedwell Ave., where several people sat watching, the focus turned to gentrification's effects on black communities.

"This is about economic and housing displacement," said Nevil Perkins, founder of Black Men United in Jersey City. "In the black community, redevelopment means gentrification."

Jackson said the issue is clear when gentrified neighborhoods begin getting more funding. The reverend also noted Morris County's abolitionist stance and participation in the underground railroad.

"The problem is that they left us underground," he said.

After the demonstrators moved past the Morris County Courthouse and chanted for county prosecutor Fredric Knapp to be replaced, the march ended at the high school, where more speeches were made by local political candidates, clergy, and activists.