New Yorkers Hold Vigil in Solidarity with Ferguson
Hundreds participated in vigils throughout New York City on Thursday in remembrance of Michael Brown.
HARLEM, NY — New Yorkers gathered in neighborhoods throughout the boroughs Thursday in remembrance of an unarmed Missouri teenager who was shot dead by police.
A crowd of people with a range of backgrounds and ethnicities assembled at Morningside Park in Harlem on Thursday evening to remember 18-year-old Michael Brown, who was fatally wounded during a confrontation with police in Ferguson, Missouri, last weekend.
The gathering, dubbed “National Moment of Silence For Victims of Police Brutality,” honored the memory of Brown and other people killed in confrontations with civil authorities.
Other mass demonstrations in support of the cause took place simultaneously at Union Square in Lower Manhattan, Bed-Stuy in Brooklyn and Jamaica in Queens, DNAinfo reported.
Bronx social worker Feminista Jones, 35, led the Harlem vigil and organized the New York City events that spread to other cities throughout the U.S.
“I put out a call on Sunday to everybody that could listen to me that was tired like I was and said, ‘Do you want to organize something in your city just to show your city and your community that you care,’ and people immediately stood up and said, ‘I do.’” Jones said.
NYPD estimated the crowd at Morningside Park swelled to 300 at the peak of the demonstration.
Harlem mother Cordelia Donovan brought her teenaged daughter to the Harlem event and expressed discontent with St. Louis County police, who sported riot gear during demonstrations in Ferguson earlier in the week.
“No military action should be taken in my homeland — we are not under attack from a foreign nation so we should not have military gear in our cities,” Donovan said Thursday.
Donovan went on to express a desire for white friends to willfully engage with her in a dialogue on the societal implications of the shooting death of Michael Brown.
“We are all Americans,” she said. “Black people fight for this country in foreign nations just like everyone else, and so I’d like to see more than just a handful get upset at the injustices.”
Check out some of the vigils around the country captured on social media using the hashtag #NMOS14.