Moll King leads part of the vigil on the Walnut Street Bridge to protest the treatment of immigrants at the U.S.-Mexico border. / Staff photo by Wyatt MasseyAround 200 people gathered in Coolidge Park and walked the Walnut Street Bridge on Friday night in protest to how immigrants are being treated at the U.S.-Mexico border.
The speakers called for justice in English and Spanish to members of the crowd, who carried signs reading “No kids in camps,” “Silence is complicity” and “Love not separation.” More than a dozen members of local clergy joined the vigil alongside the leaders of La Paz Chattanooga, which supports the local Latinx community.
Vivian Lozano Sterchi, La Paz social impact director, said those attending the vigil were standing in solidarity with those detained and wrongly treated at the border.
“We feel that this isn’t a left or right issue, this is a human rights issue,” Lozano Sterchi said. “We are witnessing on the news and through the news and in reports that individuals and families are being treated terribly and being denied human rights.”
The “Lights for Liberty: A Vigil to End Human Concentration Camps” event held in Coolidge Park Friday night was part of a nationwide series of vigils held in protest of the condition of refugees held at the U.S.-Mexico border. A similar event was scheduled in Dalton.