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Ohio University students and Athens residents gathered in front of Templeton-Blackburn Alumni Memorial Auditorium to rally for racial justice in Appalachia, as part of the Black Lives Matter movement.

Caitlyn McDaniel, a 2015 OU alumna and Athens resident, organized the rally after she heard rumors about the Ku Klux Klan making a resurgence in southeast Ohio.

I felt angry, she said. Appalachia is rich in culture and diversity. Negotiating what it means to be Appalachian took many years to unpack, and I feel like its being corrupted. We will not bow down to racism and threats.

Speakers addressed the crowd of approximately 100 people on College Green and shared stories about racism in their lives. One of the speakers was Ada Adams, who was introduced asa descendant of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings, a black slave from his home in Virginia.

I choose to label myself as a black woman, but my veins run with multicultural blood, Adams, a Nelsonville resident, said.

Adams recounted her story of leaving Athens after graduating from OU because she and her husband, Alvin C. Adams, could not find a job in the area as black people. Alvin Adams was the first black man to graduate from the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism in 1959. The two decided to move back to southeast Ohio after Adams Hall was named after Alvin.

Anyone who says white lives matter too is coming from a place of privilege, Adams said. They have not walked in my shoes.

Following a collection of speakers, Megan Cameron, a singer from the local band Amethystone, performed a song she wrote in November 2015 that has strong themes relating to the Black Lives Matter movement.

You think you know who I am based on who you see before you, she sang. History cannot be ignored. It shows us a pattern.

Cameron wrote the song as a call to action for white women to speak up for women of color.

Im used to performing, but I struggled because who am I, she said. I dont know what people of different cultures or races have gone through. It was important to sing though because white people need to have a voice and be part of the movement or else theyll just march in place.

Tom Riggs, a graduate program administrator for chemical and biomolecular engineering, came to the rally to support students and faculty of all races and cultures.

This was wonderful, he said. I came to make sure people know there are people here who know black lives matter indeed. This is another opportunity for people to show that were not going to sit idly and let people destroy what America is about.

McDaniel said she is proud to recognize multicultural students and citizens in the area.

There are so many people of color in Appalachia, but how often as a community do we celebrate that? she said.

Michael and Becca Lachman listen to speakers at a Black Lives Matter protest at Memorial Auditorium on Feb. 20, 2017.

@AbbeyMarshall

am877915@ohio.edu

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Activists rally for #BlackLivesMatter on College Green - The Post

NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCIV)

A bus brawl is raising concerns with the local Black Lives Matter group. A video shows North Charleston High School students fighting and the chaos only grows when the police step in.

A teenage girl and five teenage boys were arrested Thursday, all charged with interfering with the operation of a school bus. Three of them are charged with assaulting an officer.

Police said they were called to break up a fight around 4:00 p.m. Thursday. The bus pulled off around Dobson Street and Remount Road.

RELATED: Mayor responds to North Charleston school bus incident

A video taken by a student shows portions of the incident, particularly the confrontation between a boy and two officers. It shows police struggling to restrain the boy moments before he was taken down and handcuffed. The boy shown is Vonshondas 15-year-old son. He is locked up at the juvenile detention center.

The first thing he says, mama I swear I did nothing, Vonshonda said.

On Friday, Vonshonda and the boys grandmother, Ann, said officers targeted the wrong student.

He was sitting in the front of the bus and he said he heard the kids with the commotion in the back and he brought it to the drivers attention to tell her they were back there fighting and thats when she called the police, Vonshonda said.

The police report said the situation escalated after some students fought each other, kicked the driver. Yelled profanities and then blocked officers from intervening. They said students grabbed them and ripped off their body cameras.

But Ann said she didnt see it that way. After seeing the video, she calls it abuse.

I was terrified, I was hurt, I was traumatized because the abuse that my grandson had to suffer, the cops kicking him in the groin and pulling him out of the seat, Ann said. It was really very upsetting to me.

Friday afternoon, the local Black Lives Matter group was protesting the incident and supporting the students families.

Ann said its a step back for them, but a learning lesson in more ways than one.

Our ministry is out there trying to teach the children that police are there to protect them, Ann said. But when something like this happens, you know, children have to mature, they have to grow in patience as well.

Three of the arrested students were released to their parents, but the others are expected in front of a judge on Tuesday.

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Black Lives Matter concerned over differing stories in North Charleston school bus brawl - ABC NEWS 4

Organizers of the Black Lives Matter at School Day held Friday for the Rochester City School District say the event was created to reflect on the past, present and future of the civil rights movement and black lives in our country, and to encourage conversation about social justice and sustainable progress.

Rakia Hardaway is a social studies teacher at Edison Career and Technology High School, she said its important to have these events in schools to show that youth participation is essential.

"The civil rights movement, everyone tends to think of as just being adults, Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks. But the movement didnt get much notice until you had kids who stepped in and started protesting and getting arrested, writing the signs. So I think its exciting to see now we have a younger movement, younger kids are getting involved."

Tyiasha Jackson is a junior at Edison Tech, she said she was proud to see her school celebrate the Black Lives Matter movement and include student opinions.

"Children or even teens like us know that something isnt right. So I think that the district chose today to address us and hear us out and let us know theyre listening."

She said the day shows that students can share their opinions in a proactive way.

"I think it shows that we can address our opinion but in a positive way and talk about it with our teachers, because a lot of teachers are very supportive of today, celebrating us, addressing us, asking our opinion."

Events at Edison Career and Technology High School included jazz performances by students, documentary screenings and discussions and a mock Black Lives Matter protest during lunch.

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RCSD celebrates Black Lives Matter At School Day | WXXI News - WXXI News

Chicagos notorious violence sprees have made its way back to headlines for the heartbreaking deaths of three children over the course of only two days in 2017.

But while the city is suffering yet another unfortunate turn in its death toll, Philly-native Meek Mill has suggested that one particular organization step in on behalf of Chi-town.

On Instagram, the MMG rapper posted a photo of 11-year-old Takiya Holmes, one of the Chicago children who was recently struck by a stray bullet and fatally succumbed to her injuries on Tuesday (Feb. 14).

Though the photos of Holmes and two other children who have died from gun violence has swept local headlines in the city, Meek believes that Black Lives Matter, an organization and movement dedicated to ending violence and racism against Black citizens on a national and global level, should have more to say about the fatalities.

I think its about time for Black Lives Matter [to] focus on Chicago, he said in the caption. Its a lot of kids dying out there, and were putting all our focus on cops. RIP, Baby Girl. One of three little kids killed this week! CNN is not covering this news!

Some of Black Lives Matters objectives include bringing justice to Black, unarmed citizens killed by police and the treatment of Black citizens as a result of institutionalizedoppression. However, it has largely been criticized for what others believe is a mainstream, one-sided approach to the livelihood of Blacks and other minorities while ignoring Black-on-Black crime.

Though much of their efforts to combat violence in inner-city regions have largely gone ignored by major media outlets, Black Lives Matter also has home bases in cities like Chicago that work to dismantle systemic racism that influence issues such as gun and gang violence as well.

See Meek Mills message about Chi-towns city violence below.

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Meek Mill Believes Black Lives Matter Should Take on a New Focus - BET

Black Lives Matter movement leader Shaun King (right) spoke last Saturday with Oakland leaders (L to R) City Councilmember Desley Brooks, Cat Brooks and Carroll Fife. Photo by Ken Epstein.

Shaun King, a journalist and national leader in the Black Lives Matter movement, received a warm reception in Oakland last Saturday night when about 2,000 people came out to meet him at two hastily organized speaking events at the Oakland Technical High School auditorium.

Local activists organized the event in less than 24 hours after learning that King was visiting Oakland to speak Sunday morning at McClymonds High School for True Vine Ministries.

Also speaking Saturday night were local leaders Cat Brooks, co-founder of the Anti Police-Terror Project, and Carroll Fife of the Black Power Network.

King is a writer on social media and senior justice writer for the New York Daily News. He is also a political commentator for The Young Turks and was previously a contributing writer for Daily Kos.

Over the last several years, he has directed his energies toward exposing the epidemic of police violence in the United States, including the cases of Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, Sandra Bland, Philando Castile and Alton Sterling.

During election season, King backed Bernie Sanders and later supported Hillary Clinton in an attempt to keep Donald Trump from winning the presidency.

Police violence is not a current affairs issue, King said at the Saturday night event. The victims are peoples babies, their husbands, their brothers, their uncles, their sisters.

We have to get to a point where its personal, he said. Were dealing with a human rights crisis. We have to get to the point where (we understand) the human cost of brutality in this country.

When activists talk about taking on white privilege, he said, they have to understand that Its not simple, its deep. Its centuries in the making. This is not new. Its old.

In order to bring about change, four elements are necessary: people who support the cause, people who are energized to bring about change, and people who are willing to put in the hard, unglamorous day-to-day work to make change happen.

At present, the first three elements exist, but what the movement is lacking is the fourth element: a strategy for moving forward.

There are pockets of very strategic people among us, but the masses of people are not clear on what the strategy is, said King.

Cat Brooks, APTP leader, said Oakland is pushing out Black people at a rate that is unfathomable.

We are at under 25 percent.

Instead of paying for policing, the city needs to put its money into educating children, building gardens and creating jobs and housing, she said.

We have to have a conversation about where our city is putting its resources, said Brooks.

Fife talked about the current struggle in Oakland to allow African Americans to own some of the new businesses are taking off in the billion-dollar cannabis industry.

We will never be free if we dont own the fruits of our own labor. What we want to do is push for (cannabis) equity, she said.

It is estimated that the racial wealth gap means that it would take 228 years for the average Black family to achieve the wealth of what the average white family has today, she said. Thats not going to change unless we do something radically different.

The discussion of cannabis equity is scheduled to go to City Council on March 7.

King told organizers he supports Oaklands fight for cannabis equity. Ownership means jobs and entrepreneurship. Equity is key, he said.

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Black Lives Matter Movement Leader Shaun King Speaks in Oakland - Post News Group (blog)