Women open up on past abuse before march in Tyler Saturday

Published 8:20 pm Saturday, August 1, 2020

Local organizers and protesters marched on Saturday evening in downtown Tyler to demand justice for Black and Brown women who have been victims of police brutality.

Before the march began and women from around the nation were honored, speakers told their own stories of abuse at home and other places.

“We’ve been oppressed and repressed for centuries, all the way up to 2020,” Mission Bonner, one of the event’s organizers, said. “We’ve been at the bottom for a long time … but the time is now for changes to be made. We’re sick and tired of not getting what we rightfully deserve.”

Nearly 100 protesters attended the event, most wearing “I can’t breathe” and “Silence is violence” masks and shirts. Breonna Taylor, Sandra Bland, Atitiana Jefferson and Tanisha Anderson, who died at the hands of police or while in police custody, were named as honorees of the march.

Many of the protesters brought up the recent reopening of an investigation into Taylor’s death, saying it felt like too little, too late.

“It really (angers me) because they shouldn’t have been pressed to open the investigation,” Terry Bonner, another speaker at the event, said. “It was the wrong house, the dude was already in custody, I mean come on now, no-knock? It should never take that much to do something right.”

Other protesters came to show their solidarity in the movement for justice for minority women.

“I want people to know that in Northeast Texas, there are people that believe in liberty and justice for all, the color of your skin should not matter — or your sex,” Rebecca Appert, an attendee of the march, said. “I’m tired of the racism here, and there’s a lot of it.”

A group from Dallas, the Next Generation Action Network, also attended the march.

“We’re out here to let it be known to not just Dallas, not just Houston, but small towns including Tyler that Black lives do, in fact, matter. Black women’s lives matter,” Alex Swift, a member of the group, said. “It’s all about community and unity and solidarity and standing together to show that we can stand together.”

The march’s speakers also addressed related grievances with Tyler’s leaders and laws, including the town’s racist history and unfair sentencing for Black people.

“People of color, once they’re sentenced or go to court, our sentences are much greater, they’re worse than someone else who does the same crime,” Beatrice Curry, another attendee of the march, said. “I’ve seen that in my family and in my community. There’s something systemically wrong with that.”

Curry held a sign that held the names of many Black Americans who were killed by police and said she felt drawn to tonight’s event because those names could’ve been her family.

“It’s not just that what happened to them was wrong, it’s that no one was held accountable for it,” Curry said.

After last weekend’s protest turned violent, there has been increased security at gathering concerning Black Lives Matter groups and organizers. Four constables cars were parked on the square, and armed Black men carrying automatic weapons patrolled the area. The men were apart of the NFAC and were not demonstrators or protesters, they stressed.

Andre McCauley was one of the men carrying an automatic weapon. He is a previous resident of Tyler, and after hearing about the “problem with Black females getting harassed by some guys in these big trucks,” he decided to come to the march armed.

“There’s a possibility that people who are armed are going to be here, anti- what this is about. (I’m here) to keep the table even,” McCauley said. “I’m a Black man, and it is our duty to protect our Black women.”

Mission Bonner says that she saw threats on the event on social media, and said she appreciated the law enforcement and the coalition’s presence at the event.

“We’re not about violence, we’re not about hate,” Bonner said, “We practice love.”

The march started from the square going south on South Broadway Avenue with three Tyler constable police cars escorting, allowing traffic to flow in one lane. The constables asked the participants to stay on the sidewalk and they did.

However, when the march got to West Front Street, the Next Generation Action Network from Dallas went out in the middle of the street, and asked everyone to get in the streets as it was their streets. Constable Bobby Garmon said that was not supposed to happen and he was not pleased they went in both lanes and then stayed in both lanes on South College Avenue back to the square. He said he was also disappointed with the swearing from the Dallas group.

John Anderson contributed to this story.