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Chattanooga students call for ‘not justice for some, but justice for all’ in the wake of George Floyd’s death

Staff Photo by Robin Rudd / Emily Stoddard, of East Ridge High School, and Jordon Austin, of Red Bank High School lead the march across the Walnut Street Bridge. High School age children and others held a rally and march to protest the death of George Floyd and other maltreatment by authorities at Coolidge Park on June 8, 2020.
Staff Photo by Robin Rudd / Emily Stoddard, of East Ridge High School, and Jordon Austin, of Red Bank High School lead the march across the Walnut Street Bridge. High School age children and others held a rally and march to protest the death of George Floyd and other maltreatment by authorities at Coolidge Park on June 8, 2020. Staff Photo by Robin Rudd / Emily Stoddard, of East Ridge High School, and Jordon Austin, of Red Bank High School lead the march across the Walnut Street Bridge. High School age children and others held a rally and march to protest the death of George Floyd and other maltreatment by authorities at Coolidge Park on June 8, 2020.

By Meghan Mangrum 5 min read

Hundreds of high school and college students marched silently across the Walnut Street Bridge in Chattanooga on Monday afternoon, following the footsteps of hundreds who marched before them over the past 10 days, calling attention to the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer.

The students were there to march against police brutality, violence and racial injustice, but for many they were mostly there to show solidarity.

“As someone who is not African American, I would like to represent the non-black people standing before us right now and say I am sorry. I am sorry that the promise of equality was not given to you on Jan. 1, 1863, with the Emancipation Proclamation. I am sorry that it wasn’t given to you on July 2, 1964, with the Civil Rights Act or even today, June 8, 2020, as we continue to mourn the countless African American lives lost due to police brutality,” said Siena Rodrigues, a 17-year-old member of the group, Chatt Students for Justice.

“I am here to say that I see you, I hear you and I stand with you. Not just today or tomorrow or next week but until you do not live in fear.”

Though many organizers of the event were people of color, many who attended were not. Still, they stood and then knelt for nearly nine minutes – the length of time the Minneapolis police officer knelt on Floyd’s neck before his death – alongside their peers.