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Police brutality protests in Chattanooga today echo demonstrations of years past

Staff Photo by Kathleen Greeson / Dr. Loretta Prater holds up a baby picture of her son Leslie Prater, who died while in Chattanooga police custody in 2004 at age 37 from positional asphyxia. The city of Chattanooga reached a settlement with the Prater family for $1.5 million and agreed to an extensive review of the police department's procedures and policies. Staff Photo by Kathleen Greeson / Dr. Loretta Prater holds up a baby picture of her son Leslie Prater, who died while in Chattanooga police custody in 2004 at age 37 from positional asphyxia. The city of Chattanooga reached a settlement with the Prater family for $1.5 million and agreed to an extensive review of the police department's procedures and policies.

By Tierra Hayes June 13, 2020 9 min read

This isn’t the first time that Chattanooga has seen civil unrest.

Today as protesters march downtown and through parks, they pass over the Walnut Street Bridge, where Ed Johnson, a black man, was lynched 114 years ago. Today’s demonstrations echo a long history of protesting the treatment of black people in the area and country.

Activists and concerned citizens march after a string of police brutality cases, most recently the case of George Floyd – a black man who died in police custody after spending nearly nine minutes with his neck pinned under the knee of a white officer in Minneapolis, pleading that he couldn’t breathe.

Sixty years ago during the civil rights era, people demonstrated for the same foundational rights of fair and equal treatment for black Americans.

Looking back