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Norman Miller Daily News Staff @Norman_MillerMW

FRAMINGHAM Although often portrayed as a terrorist or anarchist organization by its opponents, Black Lives Matter exists to give a group that has been ignored and treated like second-class citizens a voice, a member of the group said on Saturday.

Speaking at a Black History Month program at the Greater Framingham Community Church, Martin Henson of Black Lives Matter-Boston, the groups existence is necessary.

We took this month where we want to make sure there is a black voice heard, said Henson, speaking to about 30 attendees. Black Lives Matter exists because its something we need to survive. Im not going to give the world as it is to my daughter. Im not going to do it.

Saturdays event featured artwork from Framingham elementary and middle school students that celebrated Black History Month, as well as Black Lives Matter.

It also featured a community reading of an abridged version of Frederick Douglass 1852 speech, The Meaning of the Fourth of July for the Negro, led by Fran Smith of Mass. Humanities, a human rights group based in Northampton.

Black Lives Matter started in 2012 after George Zimmerman was cleared of murdering Trayvon Martin in Florida, Henson said. Since then, Black Lives Matter has changed.

It started as a hashtag, then turned into an organization and then turned into a movement, said Henson. Black Lives Matter is inclusionary. There is no standard of what you have to look like, the way you have to act or what you have to think.

Black Lives Matter is an abolitionist group it wants to abolish the current prison system and the current way of policing that all too often targets blacks and minorities, Henson said. He called prison one step away from slavery.

When asked if there werent prisons, what would happen, Henson said there has to be a better way for society to treat people.

I know for sure what we do now is inhumane, he said. I know Im going to focus on stopping what is inhumane.

Rev. Anthony Lloyd, the pastor for the Greater Framingham Community Church, spoke about KKK flyers that were dropped off at several Framingham homes on Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

He said, when it occurred, he was contacted by reporters for comment. But, he said, he is not the right person to talk to.

Im not here to say black folks are upset by the KKK, said Lloyd. You dont need to call me about that. You have to call the white folks who live in Framingham and see if thats the type of community they want to live in. Part of the solution is to see how they feel about this.

Norman Miller can be reached at 508-626-3823 or nmiller@wickedlocal.com. Follow Norman Miller on Twitter @Norman_MillerMW or on Facebook at facebook.com/NormanMillerCrime.

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Black Lives Matter gives a voice, speaker says in Framingham - Milford Daily News