There is a movement underway in the streets across the nation, around the world and on social media. People are demanding justice and social reform following the death of George Floyd while in Minneapolis police custody.
A legendary bishop in Jacksonville who has been entrenched in fighting for racial equality for nearly eight decades, Bishop Rudolph McKissick Sr. offers his words of encouragement to those peacefully protesting.
“I don’t see defeat for those who are out there peacefully demonstrating because the one thing they have gotten is the attention of America of the world really,” McKissick said. “To me, they’re not saying I’m tired of this or I’m tired of that. They’re saying this is it. No more.”
McKissick is now 92 and has lived under separate but equal laws in the United States. He says he has yet to see true equality. Images of Floyd laying on the ground with a now-former Minneapolis police officer's knee on his neck brought back chilling memories for McKissick.
“We saw a man all but hung when this police officer continued to strangle with his knee on his neck,” McKissick, the Pastor Emeritus of Bethel Baptist Institutional church said. “That gives African Americans flashbacks. Especially those of us who were closer to the lynching days. That was a lynching for the public to see.”
McKissick condemns the violence seen across the nation during demonstrations but encourages those protesting peacefully to continue to push for change.
“The marching in the peaceful sense gets the attention and getting the attention can get us to the table for reasoning and rationalizing and then getting results,” McKissick declared. “We’re not dealing with something that’s impossible. We’re dealing with something that is possible and has to be if we’re going to live in this nation as people... We've got to now have a plan. And that plan must be getting people to the polls so that we can vote for the right persons to take office. If we do that. We'll see changes."