Families, Organizers Lead Four Atlanta Marches to Speak Out Against State-Sanctioned Violence
On Saturday, June 27, JUSTGeorgia will support marches departing from Grant Park, Kathryn Johnston Memorial Park, Central Park and the Inman Park MARTA station that will converge at Troy Davis Park (Woodruff Park) in Downtown Atlanta for a rally demanding changes to conditions that enable state-sanctioned violence. The event has been planned in collaboration with youth organizers and will feature speakers, recording artists and impacted families. Activist Tamika Mallory and her organization Until Freedom will serve as event co-sponsors.
Marchers will honor those killed by police and vigilantes in Georgia by carrying signs bearing their names from each site as follows:
- Marchers from Central Park will carry signs memorializing people from the north part of the Atlanta metro area and North Georgia;
- Marchers from Grant Park for the southern part of the metro and North Georgia;
- Marchers from Inman Park MARTA station for the eastern part of the metro and East Georgia; and
- Marchers from Kathryn Johnston Memorial Park for the western part of the metro and West Georgia.
JUSTGeorgia has tailored demands that will allow people from all over the state to take local and statewide action:
- divest from police & invest in communities;
- demilitarize police;
- repeal Georgia’s citizen’s arrest statute;
- stop and repeal laws that criminalize race;
- hold killer cops & their leaders accountable;
- remove unethical prosecutors from office; and
- fund local and statewide study committees on reparations.
“We want to defy the myth that Atlanta is so exceptional that we can stand alone in this fight. JUSTGeorgia encourages every corner of the state to stand and demand an end to racist violence by materially changing the laws and culture that criminalize Black people,” said Tiffany Roberts of Southern Center for Human Rights, a JUSTGeorgia foundational partner.
JUSTGeorgia is a coalition of organizations that came together after the killing of Ahmaud Arbery to amplify demands emanating from Southeast Georgia.