Activists from Chattanooga and Atlanta banded together Friday night for a fiery resurgence to this summer’s marathon protests against police brutality in honor of the late U.S. Rep. John Lewis, curating “good trouble” in Chattanooga’s Bushtown.
A caravan of three busloads of activists honoring Lewis and the 55th anniversary of the federal Voting Rights Act traveled from Atlanta, where Rayshard Brooks was killed, to Louisville, the home of Breonna Taylor, who was killed by police in March.
Then, as the final stop of a three-city freedom ride, they came to Chattanooga, where activists have been protesting the police killings of Taylor and others all summer, heightened locally by the case of Reginald Arrington, struck repeatedly by the batons of Hamilton County sheriff’s deputies.
Local activists who have been fighting for criminal justice reform more nights than not throughout the summer sounded off with a relit resistance toward city officials after the recent enforcement against activists including leader Marie Mott, who was charged with protest-related crimes after turning herself in.
“We all know that camouflaged in this rhetoric that seems to have concern for our community is a letter from the city strongly discouraging this gathering today,” Rev. Timothy Careathers of Westside Missionary Baptist Church said in a response to Chattanooga Mayor Andy Berke telling organizers of the rally that they would not be permitted to gather in Miller Park amid a pandemic.