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When Martin Luther King Jr. staged a march in Selma, Alabama in 1965 just days after Alabama state troopers and local cops assaulted protesters in an infamous confrontation known as Bloody Sunday" it was CRS officials who worked to avert another round of violence.

More recently, in 2018, when Sacramento police shot to death Stephon Clarke, an African American man, a five-person CRS team was on the ground in less than 24 hours. The team helped to arrange an emergency meeting between the city council and a community furious over the killing of the unarmed 22-year-old.

If you can get a conversation started, things are less likely to go stupid," said Ronald Wakabayashi, the CRS regional director who led the team in Sacramento and has since retired.

But now, during perhaps the most significant civil rights moment in a half century, the CRS has been sidelined, sending out just a handful of staffers to cities experiencing unrest and making few public statements. Between May 25, the date of George Floyd's death at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer, and June 15, the agency put out four Tweets and some Facebook posts none of which mentioned the growing national outcry over decades of abusive policing in communities of color.

Current and former CRS leaders and staffers say the agency's muted response reflects the Trump administration's efforts to dismantle it over the past three years, leaving it short-staffed and rudderless.

President Donald Trump, in his budget proposals, has repeatedly recommended eliminating the agency. The CRS, whose work often occurs out of public view, continues to exist only because Congress has repeatedly restored its funding.

But even with that funding, the agency's ability to carry out its mission has diminished dramatically. Though the CRS is budgeted for 34 full-time employees down from 58 in 2017 it now has 29, according to current and former employees, and the headcount was even lower in recent months. It is supposed to be managed by 10 regional directors but now has only three. As Trump's first term comes to a close, the White House has yet to nominate a permanent director for Senate approval, and at present the CRS doesn't have an acting director.

Morale is extraordinarily low. They feel like they can't do the work" said Grande Lum, who headed the CRS from 2012 to 2016 and still talks to current CRS employees. These are career employees, they're not political appointees like I was. They have been doing this under every administration, Republican and Democrat, and this administration is saying, 'We don't really want you.'"

Former federal officials said the decline of the CRS fits a broader pattern at the Trump Justice Department, which has taken an interest in religious freedom cases but has turned away from other civil rights issues. Under the leadership of Jeff Sessions and current Attorney General Wiliam Barr, the department has curtailed the use of civil litigation to reform troubled police forces and sought to roll back legal protections for transgender people.

In this administration anything dealing with civil rights has a target on it," said Becky Monroe, who served as acting director of the CRS during the Obama years and now works for the nonpartisan Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights.

Lum compared the Trump administration's moves to gut the agency before a massive wave of protests to the administration's much-criticized decision to dissolve the National Security Council's pandemic unit before the coronavirus crisis hit. Both decisions, he said, deprived the federal government of experienced leaders at a key moment.

Though many of the marches and demonstrations over the past six weeks were peaceful, others devolved into the sort of chaos the CRS was designed to help deter, with police officers using batons, tear gas and rubber bullets to push back crowds, and protesters hurling rocks and bottles at cops, burning buildings and ransacking businesses. Gunfire has rung out in many cities, killing civilians and at least one law enforcement officer. On July 4 a driver slammed into marchers who had taken over a Seattle highway, leaving one person dead.

Current and former employees told ProPublica that some CRS staffers were reluctant to go out into the streets because of the ongoing spread of the coronavirus, though they noted that employees are continuing to work from home, using phone calls and videoconferences to conduct trainings and stay on top of events as they unfold around the country.

When similar protests occurred during past administrations, Monroe said, CRS staffers were on the ground working with community leaders" to address tensions and keep people safe.

Even if more CRS staff were being sent out now, said Monroe, the president's recent inflammatory speeches and tweets would complicate their ability to do their job. Right now, I think the president and this administration have really undermined the core mission of the agency by trying to incite racist violence," she said. We literally have a president of the United States who is doing the opposite of what the Community Relations Service was created to do."

A Justice Department spokesperson said the agency has prioritized the safety of its employees" during the pandemic, but since the wave of protests began, staffers have been allowed to meet face-to-face with small groups of people as long as they wear masks.

To date, CRS leadership has approved all requests for deployment under this procedure," said the spokesperson, who declined to say which cities CRS staff have been dispatched to, but said they were in touch with leaders in 65 cities.

The spokesperson defended CRS staffing levels and said the agency is currently hiring more employees.

Throughout our history as an agency, there have always been periods of unrest, and CRS has always responded to the best of its ability, knowing that there is always more that could be done," the spokesperson told ProPublica, noting that some of the agency's most important work begins after the protests have subsided and when community groups and local law enforcement are ready to work together on areas of needed reform."

The history of the CRS begins with Lyndon Johnson, who as a U.S. senator in the late 1950s envisioned a mediation service that would seek to quell disputes between racial and ethnic groups.

Years later, as president, Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the landmark law that banned racial discrimination in housing, employment, voting education and so-called public accommodations retail businesses, restaurants, hotels and the like. Included in the sweeping and transformative legislation were a few brief paragraphs establishing the CRS.

Those paragraphs instructed the new agency to provide assistance in resolving disputes, disagreements, or difficulties relating to discriminatory practices based on race, color, or national origin."

For Johnson, the creation of the CRS reflected his conviction that most conflict could be negotiated," according to a forthcoming history of the agency written by Lum and another former CRS leader, Bertram Levine. It also reflected an uncomfortable truth: The Justice Department didn't have nearly enough lawyers to sue every business or local government agency that refused to comply with the Civil Rights Act and its prohibition on racial segregation.

Required by law to keep most of its activities confidential, the new agency played a quiet, behind-the-scenes role throughout the second half of the 1960s as civil rights activism swept across the country. In 1965, CRS staffers were on the ground in Selma, Alabama, the site of some of the ugliest episodes of the era. After police killed protester Jimmie Lee Jackson and brutalized marchers as they crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge a horrific event that would come to be known as Bloody Sunday" CRS leaders convinced local authorities not to attack subsequent marches led by King and others.

A new federal hate crimes law, passed in 2009, broadened the CRS mandate, directing the agency to work to prevent hate crimes, including those targeting LGBTQ individuals and institutions. Since then, the agency has led discussion groups for high schools torn apart by bullying and harassment and helped a state prison develop policies for handling transgender inmates.

CRS teams, at least until recently, have continued to respond to a wide range of conflicts. In 2010, CRS employees worked to defuse a tense, potentially lethal situation in Phoenix when a small band of neo-Nazis armed with assault rifles confronted a large group of demonstrators, including many Latinos, who had gathered at the Arizona Capitol to denounce a new anti-immigration law adopted by the state.

The CRS hasn't always been successful at preventing violence and chaos. Even at its peak, it was a small agency confronting entrenched and complex problems.

And over the past decade it has become something of a bogeyman for conservative activists and right-wing pundits who claim the agency has deviated from its mission and is now covertly orchestrating protests and aggravating racial discord. Those claims were strenuously denied by CRS personnel who spoke to ProPublica.

Because we work with communities of color, some people believe we're instigating these issues. We're not. We're helping them resolve these conflicts," said one CRS employee, who asked to remain anonymous because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

Much of the controversy stems from a campaign by Judicial Watch, a conservative advocacy group, which claims that CRS staffers actively worked to foment unrest" in the aftermath of the fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin, an African American teenager, in Sanford, Florida, in 2012.

According to Judicial Watch, the CRS helped to organize and manage rallies and protests" in Sanford as part of a Justice Department pressure campaign leading to the prosecution of George Zimmerman," the neighborhood watch volunteer who killed Martin. This incendiary narrative was picked up by a host of right-wing media outlets, including The Daily Caller, Breitbart News, WorldNetDaily, PJ Media and the biggest of them all, Fox News.

Judicial Watch said it based its assertions on some 350 pages of internal CRS documents, including emails and travel records, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.

But as the story began to circulate through the conservative media ecosystem in 2013, PolitiFact, a nonpartisan fact-checking site, evaluated Judicial Watch's claims and concluded they were mostly false. Justice Department employees were sent to Sanford, in part to deal with community uprising, including protests," noted the site. But they were sent with the idea of keeping the situation peaceful and calm, not to instigate or condone protests or violence."

A ProPublica review of the internal CRS documents found no support for the allegations made by Judicial Watch. The organization did not respond to questions.

CRS employees who were on the ground in Sanford said they spent their days trying to ensure that nobody got hurt during three major protest events and a student-led sit-in outside the police department. Thomas Battles, then the CRS regional director overseeing the Southeast, started conversations between the local police and members of the New Black Panther Party, who'd shown up to a demonstration heavily armed, raising fears that the protest might turn into a gun battle. In the end, there were no arrests, no injuries," recalled Monroe, who was present at the scene.

Jeff Triplett, who was mayor of Sanford at the time of the protests, has praised the CRS for its help and credited the agency for acting as an emissary between public officials and activists.

But by the time Trump was sworn in as president, in 2017, the Heritage Foundation, one of the most influential conservative think tanks in Washington, had adopted the Judicial Watch line.

The CRS budget should be entirely eliminated," wrote Heritage in its budget recommendations for Trump's first year in office. Rather than fulfilling its mandate of trying to be the peacemaker in community conflicts, the CRS has raised tensions in local communities in recent incidents."

Since then, the Trump administration has sought to do away with the CRS. The administration's 2019 budget proposal offered no money for the agency. And its proposed 2020 budget would have eliminated the CRS and directed another unit of the Justice Department to take over its work, with a greatly reduced staff. The administration characterized the plan as an attempt to improve efficiency.

Congress blocked those moves, increasing funding to the office from $14.4 million in 2017 to $16 million in 2020.

Asked how that increased funding was being spent despite the smaller staff, the DOJ spokesperson said all CRS appropriated funding has been dedicated to CRS requirements and mission accomplishment" including updated training materials, strategic planning, social media, and websites dealing with hate crimes.

The cuts in staff have shrunk the frontline team. Lum said that when he directed the agency, he had about 30 staffers, known as conciliation specialists, that he could deploy to cities and towns in crisis. Today the CRS has 16 specialists it can send into the field, according to the DOJ spokesperson.

During the Trump years, as the staffing numbers dropped, Wakabayashi, as a regional director, went from overseeing four states and Guam, to managing 15 states plus the island territory, a geographic area stretching from the far side of the Pacific to Alaska to middle America. It was a steep learning curve. If you talk about square miles or time zones, it's huge," he recalled.

The DOJ spokesperson said the agency has posted four jobs since March and is in the process of hiring another regional director.

Equally concerning for Wakabayashi, who spent two decades at the CRS, is what he sees as a movement away from the agency's legacy of acting as mediators during crises.

The conciliators have their hands tied," he said. The CRS has scuttled a lot of the custom work that we did. When you're in a conflict situation, you go in and look at what the problems are and what people's concerns are."

In Wakabayashi's view, the CRS is now focused on what he called off-the-shelf programs," including training seminars about the Sikh and Muslim faiths and community forums on hate crimes. They're not bad they come out of our own tradition of work but they're not useful if you use them mechanically."

In 2017, the CRS jettisoned a program dealing with racial profiling that brought together civilians, advocacy groups and law enforcement officers in a neutral setting to discuss bias in policing. It was replaced with a new program that makes no mention of profiling, according to the CRS staff.

Monroe doesn't think it's an accident that the CRS has gone without a director for several years. It demonstrates that they don't think it's an agency that merits the leadership it needs," she said.

See the rest here:
Trump Weakened Key Civil Rights Agency When It Is Needed Most - The National Memo

I typed the word threaten in the search on Shutterstock, and this is what came up. The original caption is Angry African-American businessman threatens colleague, conflict between male workers at workplace, bullying and discrimination, black boss blames white employee responsible for failure, your faultPhoto: Shutterstock (Shutterstock)

This wont be long, because I am not going to belabor the point.

Much in the same way white people have weaponized the police against Black bodies, they have also adopted the language of those who protect and uplift whiteness and white supremacythe police.

Historically, weve seen that the only thing a cop needs to say in order to get away with killing a Black person is I feared for my life.

Similarly, white people are using I felt threatened or that their life was in danger or that they thought someone had a gun, to get away with the extrajudicial killing of Black people.

When Amy Cooper encountered Christian Cooper in Central Park, she didnt like it that a Black man asked her (no matter how politely) to leash her dog. Never mind that they were in an area of Central Park where dogs are required to be leashed; Amy decided this uppity-ass nigger wasnt going to tell her what to do. Not tuh-day, honey. So she went into white woman-mode, put on her best victim voice and lied and told the police that Christian was threatening her and her dog. She made sure to mention that he was a) a man and b) Black, and she included the lie that he was threatening her because Black man and threat are a racist dog whistle to copsespecially cops who disregard Black lives and dont mind taking them.

Her stupid-ass apology aside, Amy knew exactly what she was doing when she weaponized the cops against Christian, and she knew that in doing so, it could result in bodily harm coming to him. She wanted him to be put in his place, and she wanted him to see and be aware that she could make that happen.

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It was a gross display of white supremacy, white woman victimhood and white privilege.

She knew whiteness would protect her, and she knew the police would land on the side of her whiteness.

Similarly, when George Zimmerman killed Trayvon Martin in 2012, he said he did so because he felt threatened. Floridas Stand Your Ground law had his back, making it possible for a grown-ass man to get away with killing the 17-year-old Black boy he chased and stalked against the advice of 911 dispatchers.

The thing is: when you feel threatened by someone or something, dont you move away from it?

I am allergic to bees. When I see bees, I get the fuck out of the way. I dont be bullshitting, either. We could be in the middle of a conversation, and if I see a beebitch, fuck whatever it was you were saying. Im moving away from said bee even if that means moving away from you right when you are (finally) getting to the juicy part of the story.

Similarly, when people are afraid of dogs, they dont go running toward them. They run away from them.

All that said, make this make sense:

A Florida man (lol) was caught on video losing his shit in the middle of Costco after a nice elderly woman asked him to please wear a mask.

When Mr. Roid Rage became aggressive with the woman who asked, a kind bystander stepped in to defend her. Said bystander also started filming with their phone.

Wearing a red T-shirt with the words Running the world since 1776 (the irony is making me constipated), Roid Rage charges toward the person filming. He first yells Youre harassing me, and when he is told that he is not being harassed, he begins advancing menacingly toward the person filming and yells I feel threatened! Back off! Threaten me again! Back the fuck off and put your fucking phone down!

From the way the video is shot, you can tell that as Roid Rage advances, the person behind the camera continues to try and retreat away from him.

How are you being threatened by someone who is running away from you?

That is a question for every cop, and I suppose now it will become one for everyday regular degular white people, too.

View original post here:
White People Have Weaponized I Feel Threatened the Same Way They Have Weaponized the Police - The Root

Like teammate Kyrie Irving, Garrett Temple is a vice-president of the NBPA, the players union, and as such, Temple has said he believes the NBAs return-to-play can be a vehicle for enhancing players social justice goals.

Some have reported that Irving had his doubts about the return, suggesting a boycott might have been a better way to point up inequities in American society, including the police brutality the led to the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police on May 25. .

I think we utilize the situation being in the bubble as a way to continue to push it because there are going to be so many eyes watching these basketball games, Temple told a Nets media Zoom call, noting that while he and Irving might have had their differences, they agreed on the ultimate goal.

Everybody has their own thoughts on how to affect change, Temple said. The main point is that everybody wants the same thing. Kyrie, myself, most of the black men in the NBA that are passionate about this or if they werent passionate, most of them are now we want the same thing. There are a lot of different ways to skin a cat.

The conversations were actually those conversations: Thinking about whats the way we can most utilize this extra push, these extra ears, and extra eyes that are on this situation. Everybody realized this is a little different than three or four years ago. The world was at a standstill, and this happened again; and because of the situation in terms of the pandemic, people have to watch. Its the only thing that was going on.

Temple added that by having so many eyes focused on Orlando and the fight for change, the NBA players wont let the nations focus shift.

As black men, black people in America, this is an everyday struggle. So the way we can utilize those two or three months in Orlando to continue to push the narrative, to have it fresh on peoples minds, is something we can do in terms of keeping it on peoples minds. We can really utilize our bubble and ESPN and Turner to help us push that narrative.

Still, he noted that like so many players whove thought about not going, he has a nervous anxiousness about the bubble.

There is no way to be comfortable when you think about where youre going to be, for the amount of time youre going to be there and the restrictions that you have there, Temple told reporters. The question of us being comfortable; that will not be the case whatsoever.

We will have to adapt. We will get tired of it. But in no way, shape or form will anyone actually be comfortable, whether it be on the court or off the court, during leisure time or not.

Temple also discussed meetings the team had with Van Jones, the CNN commentator and CEO of the REFORM Alliance, Zoom get-togethers arranged by Clara Wu Tsai, a partner in the Alliance which aims to reform Americas criminal justice system.

One thing he was saying was we want yall to keep playing. Yall are some of the few black people in America that have a little bit of money, so we dont want yall to stop that, Temple said. But his biggest thing to us was to continue to have home as black men, black women in America, that he does see a change in how things are going.

One of the most rewarding parts of a difficult time, Temple volunteered was that so many young and old white people had joined in the protests, compared to when George Zimmerman was acquitted of the 2012 killing of Trayvon Martin.

Nobody seemed to care, Temple said. It made me angry that it was so foreign to so many people, or people just didnt even pay attention to it.

Fast-forward eight or nine years later, it seems like people are finally starting to care about unarmed black men being brutalized by the police and black Americans in general being marginalized. So the biggest thing I see is the difference in how that has affected or everybody is trying to help.

On a personal note, Temple said that he will be at his fiance Kara McCulloughs side when she gives birth to their first child, expected sometime in September.

Im coming back to see my first child being born, Temple said. Thats not even in the question.

Of course, the Nets would have to take down one of the top seeds in the first round of the playoffs for them to still be playing when Temple becomes a father.

Chris Chiozza spoke with reporters as well on Sunday, saying that if Spencer Dinwiddie isnt be able play, hell be ready. Without Dinwiddie, the Nets seem to be ready to Caris LeVert man the point, which will give Chiozza a significant role as a back-up.

Asked if he was disappointed that the Nets didnt convert his two-way deal to a standard contract last week, Chiozza said it wasnt as if he expected it.

I wasnt sure that they were going to do it or not, so when it didnt happen, it didnt bother me too much because of the circumstances, he said. Im still going to be ready to play. Thats all I really cared about ... being able to be in the playoffs and the last few games of the season.

Under normal circumstances, two-ways like him and Jeremiah Martin wouldnt have been eligible for post-season play but under NBA rules adopted for the bubble, the two were added to the roster to fill in for the injured Irving and Kevin Durant.

As to whether hed want to come back next season hell be a restricted free agent come October Chiozza said he definitely wants to return.

Ive gotten comfortable here, enjoy the teammates, the staff, all the coaches. So I would love to back for sure.

The 24-year-old said he spent most of the last three-plus months at home in Memphis where he worked out with his father, his high school coach, at the schools gym. Like high school days, he joked.

Read more here:
Garrett Temple hopeful that bubble will advance social justice goals - NetsDaily

Tina Knowles-Lawson and Sybrina Fulton want to ensure fair and safe elections this fall as they stress the importance of the Black vote as a driver of change.

The mother of music superstar Beyonc and the mother of Trayvon Martin spoke with Sheinelle Jones on the 3rd hour of TODAY Thursday about their call for the U.S. Senate to pass the HEROES Act, which includes a provision for $3.6 billion in grants to states for planning, preparation and security of elections.

"Voting, absolutely, though it is not the key to success for all the problems, certainly does make a difference, especially at the local level," Knowles-Lawson said. "Just connecting the dots is what we're trying to do because sometimes in the Black community just because we have gone unheard for so long, people have the feeling that their votes don't count, that their voices don't count.

"So voting is the best way, the first way, for us to make our voices heard and to show our power because we get to elect the officials that govern these situations."

Trending stories,celebrity news and all the best of TODAY.

Knowles-Lawson has joined forces with Fulton and other mothers of those like Eric Garner and Breonna Taylor who have been lost to gun violence to write an open letter to Senate leaders to pass the bill. The Democrat-led House of Representatives voted to pass the bill last month, but it has stalled in the Republican-controlled Senate.

"We decided to come together to make our voice even stronger, to make our voice even more powerful," Fulton said. "It's very important to us that we stand together and we stand up for what's right."

Knowles-Lawson said her fear for the presidential election in the fall is a scene like the one this week in a primary election in Louisville, Kentucky, where voters were pounding on doors to get into the one polling place in a city of 600,000 people.

Voters in minority communities in Georgia had a similar issue earlier this month when they waited hours on line to vote due to fewer polling locations, lack of staffing and inoperable voting machines.

Knowles-Lawson also advocated for more absentee voting as a safer option during the coronavirus pandemic.

"You shouldn't have to decide between your health and going to vote," she said, adding, "Our prayer is that this lights a spark in that everyone will be outraged by the fact that this bill has not been passed and it's so badly needed."

Fulton continues to push for voting rights and racial justice eight years after her 17-year-old son was shot and killed in Sanford, Florida, by George Zimmerman, who was acquitted. Her son's name has been a rallying cry at protests around the world against racial injustice since the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis last month.

Fulton has also decided to run for political office, competing for a seat on the Miami-Dade County Board of County Commissioners in Florida.

She was asked about the indictments handed down Wednesday to the three suspects in the death of Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year-old Black man who was shot and killed while jogging in a Georgia neighborhood in February.

"That's very hard," she said. "They will be setting a precedent that says that Black lives matter, and I think that it's time, it's time for people to see that you just can't go out and shoot and kill us and not be held accountable, so I'm hopeful that they will be not only indicted, but convicted as well."

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Tina Knowles-Lawson and Trayvon Martin's mom emphasize 'power' of the Black vote - Today.com

Celebrities such as Jada Pinkett Smith, Common and Muhammad Ali's cousin turn out for the Breonna Taylor rally in Frankfort Louisville Courier Journal

FRANKFORT, Ky. Wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with the words "PROTECT HER," hip-hop star Common's message was clear Thursday afternoon.

Stand up for Black women, he said. And stand up for Breonna Taylor.

"I will stand up for and with Black women 'til my last breath," Common said in a poem he wrote about Taylor. "The date Breonna took her last breath was the date I took my first. March 13 is my birthday. And I will always honor Breonna on that day."

He finished: "Better tomorrows begin with us lifting up the Black woman."

More than 500 people gathered on the front steps of Kentucky's Capitol in the hot midday sun for the #JusticeForBreonnaTaylor rally, over 100 days since Taylor, a 26-year-old ER technician, was fatally shot by police in her Louisville apartment.

Common, actress Jada Pinkett Smith and rapper Rapsody were among the celebrities that stood alongside Taylor's family and attorneys in Frankfort.

For nearly three hours, rallygoers demanded justice not only for Taylorbut for all of the countrys Black women. Speakers at times referenceda 1962 quote from Malcolm X, who called the Black woman the most neglected person in America.

Thursday's rally was organized by Until Freedom, a New York-based collective of activists, organizers and survivors of racial injustice.

Breonna Taylor is everywhere, said Tamika Mallory, a national activist with Until Freedom.

The issue of Black women being killed and our voices being too low is a problem, Mallory continued, urging those in the crowd to learn about Pamela Turner, a Black woman from Houston who was shot and killed by police in May 2019.

Mallory called on Kentuckians to continue calling for justice in the Taylor case. The nation will be watching, she said, before directing her statement to Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron, whose office is investigating Taylors death.

This aint no little thing where people aint paying attention, Mallory said.

Ben Crump, a Florida-based attorney for Taylor's family who has represented other families of Black Americans, said he believes Taylor is the face of a growing movement.

Taylor will be for Black women what Trayvon Martin has becomefor Black men, Crump said after the rally, referring to the 17-year-old unarmed teen who was fatally shot in Florida by a would-be vigilante named George Zimmerman.

On stage, Crump called on Taylor's boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, who made one of his first public appearances since prosecutors droppedcharges against him more than a month ago.

Walker was charged with attempted-murder and assault for firing a shot inside Taylor's apartment on March 13 while police were serving a search warrant, striking Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly in the femoral artery. Walker has said he did not know it was police behind the door, and that he acted in self-defense.

Three officers returned fire, killing Taylor, who was unarmed, in her hallway.

Mattingly and Officer Myles Cosgrove remain on administrative reassignment for firing their weapons, and Brett Hankison, the third officer who fired his weapon that night, has been terminated from the police department, with the interim chief calling his actions "a shock to the conscience."

Hankison is appealing his termination.

We call a brother a hero who tries to defend his Black woman, Crump said. That is the definition of a hero.

Walker, who came to the podium amid chants of hero!kept his comments brief.

I know yall ain't heard a lot from me, if anything," he said. "But I just want to let yall know I appreciate all the love and support for me, and most definitely for Breonna. She would appreciate it, too.

"#Breewayy," he added, the family's hashtag and rallying cry for Breonna, before turning to embrace Crump.

Taylor's mother, Tamika Palmer, brought with her a "Justice for Breonna Taylor"yard sign as a "gift" for Gov. Andy Beshear and Attorney General Daniel Cameron.

Put it in the yard, right in the middle," she said. "They need to remember their job, everyday.

Mysonne Linen, or The N.Y. General, a rapper and activist from the Bronx, and co-founder of Until Freedom, called Walker to his side before leading the crowd in a pledge to protect Black women.

This is a hero, he said, pointing at Walker. No longer will we stand and watch our Black women be harmed. We have to sacrifice our lives, if need be, to protect our Black women.

So we are pledging today that, not on our watch, will you ever harm another Black woman.

Songs from Black hip-hop artists, including Jay-Z, Kendrick Lamar and Jadakiss, blared from loudspeakers stationed atop the Capitol steps as people arrived at the rally late Thursday morning.

A legislative staffer who left her office to view the start of the rally said she had spent the past 24 hours reading about the Taylor case and watching documentaries about racial injustice in the U.S.

Theyre killing them, said the woman, who was middle-aged and white.

The police are killing them. And I didnt know it, she said, tears in her eyes.

Before speakers took to the podium around noon, organizers played the song Rise Up by Sandra Day an unofficial anthem of the Black Lives Matter movement. Hundreds in the crowd sang along, their fists held high in the air.

When the song concluded, one woman lowered her fist to her face, using it to wipe a tear from her cheek.

Throughout the day, people could be seen viewing the crowd below from a portico above the Capitol steps, from Black custodial workers to Sen. Gerald Neal, a Louisville Democrat and the longest serving African-American member of the Kentucky legislature.

Democratic state Rep. Attica Scott of Louisville, Kentucky's only Black woman in the legislature, said "every level of government has failed us."

"From Attorney General Daniel Cameron to Gov. Andy Beshear," Scott said. "We are here to send a strong and loud message to the attorney general: To move swiftly, or get out of the way. We are here to send a strong message to Gov. Beshear: You better not ever send the State Police and National Guard to Louisville, Kentucky, ever again."

She also thanked the protesters who have been occupying "Injustice Square Park" the protesters name for Jefferson Square Park andthose who've called on Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer to resign.

"Yougot to go," she said. "Resign, Fischer."

Rapper Common reads a poem he wrote for Breonna Taylor during a rally in her honor on the steps of the Capitol building in Frankfort. Louisville Courier Journal

Sean Ali Waddell, Muhammad Ali's cousin, drew a raucous response from the protesters during an impassioned speech in which he finished with a demand for Cameron to charge the officers responsible for Taylor's death.

"Don't you be on the wrong side of history," Waddell said. "Don't you stay on the wrong side of history."

With the temperature soaring near 90 degrees, some speeches were interrupted by urgent calls for medics. Rally organizers several times lugged coolers stocked with ice and bottled water to the base of the Capitol steps.

As some took the shade on the nearby lawn, 26-year-old Alexis Taylor of Louisville stood tall under the scorching sun. For hours, she hollered support at the rallys speakers.

The event left her feeling really empowered and really energized, she said.

Taylor, a Black woman, said she felt a special connection to Breonna: They shared the same last name. They were the same age. They both lived in Louisville.

It could have easily been me, she said.

Taylor said she has had white friends come to her in recent weeks and apologize for not taking time to better understand what she and Black people go through every day. Seeing people of different races at the rally and at protests in Louisville makes her emotional, Taylor said.

A lot of people are starting to wake up. And that's good. And that means that these protests are working.

This has to end, one way or another, she added. And were just going to keep going until it does.

Reach Tessa Duvall at tduvall@courier-journal.com and 502-582-4059. Twitter: @TessaDuvall. Support strong local journalism by subscribing today: http://www.courier-journal.com/subscribe.

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Breonna Taylor rally: Common, Rapsody join 500-plus in vowing to stand up for Black women - Courier Journal