ATLANTA (AP) - Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms on Thursday walked with protesters downtown and told the crowd through a megaphone that "there is something better on the other side of this."
"We are in the midst of a movement in this country," she said. "But it's going to be incumbent upon all of us to be able to get together and articulate more than our anger. We got to be able to articulate what we want as our solutions."
The mayor's appearance came on the seventh straight night of protests in the city following the killing of George Floyd in Minnesota. Police Chief Erika Shields also attended the protest.
When the first night of protests on Friday turned violent, an impassioned Bottoms held a news conference and urged the protesters to go home, saying those who were looting and vandalizing businesses were disgracing the city and Floyd's life.
She told the crowd on Thursday that they "matter" to her, and before she left, she encouraged them to get tested for COVID-19.
Bottoms is under consideration to be the running mate of presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, and the protests have become a leadership test for her. Her remarks on Friday were widely praised.
She announced this week that she would establish a commission to look at the city's use of force policies.