Peace and rainbows mark protest in park, despite threats of violence

As the sun set and the Black Lives Matter rally in Plyler Park came to an end, the crowd of white, black, Christian and Muslim people lingered and talked with each other well after the closing prayer.

Storm clouds that had formed to the southeast were starting to break apart and a rainbow appeared in the distance.

The gathering had remained calm and peaceful, despite the threats of violence on social media before the event.

Police with K-9 units canvassed the area before the rally began Saturday night. Officers took up stations on the roofs of surrounding buildings. But the rally ended in peace.

No arrests. No violence. Just a message of hope and equality.

“The event was peaceful without any incidents,” said Lt. Joey Crosby of the Myrtle Beach Police Department.

“People were trying to portray this event as a negative but it ended up being positive,” said organizer Chris Robinson. “You see smiles, you see black guys talking to white people, you see people communicating with each other. And this is what I wanted, to leave here in peace. Nobody’s throwing anything, nobody’s cursing, there were no gunshots, and that’s exactly what I wanted.”

Robinson doesn’t normally organize rallies or protests, but decided to organize the event in response to the police killings of two black men, Philando Castile in Minnesota and Alton Sterling in Louisiana.

“I’m just a dad and I had to talk to my kids about the situation,” said Robinson. “My children need to know that they’re not insignificant when it comes to society; that their lives really matter.”

One attendee, Stanley Edmonds, has many family members who are in law enforcement including his two son-in-laws.

“I have a lot at stake here,” he said. “I grew up in the inner city. I dealt with some racism, I dealt with some police brutality in my day. But I also know there’s a lot of good cops in this world.”

He said the Dallas shootings “touches home” for his family.

“It’s a tough thing to see your 6-year-old granddaughter cry yesterday morning after seeing the Dallas shooting on the news, which we tried to avoid her from seeing,” he said. “Her dad is a police officer in North Myrtle Beach, and the last two days she’s been crying each day not wanting her dad to go to work.”

Shivaun Montgomery was there to raise awareness for what she said was the mistreatment of black Americans by police. She said the protest wasn’t about black empowerment, but rather equality.

“It’s about bringing awareness to the fact that there has been injustice done to black people when it comes to the justice system,” she said. “We have been mistreated. It’s not about empowering or lifting us up, it’s just about me wanting my son to be stopped and treated the same way as your son or daughter would be treated at a traffic stop.”

But some protesters said they believe that the movement should be about more than just gathering and talking.

“There has to be something that we have to do as a people to stop this,” said Juan Kenney. “Nobody is being convicted; nobody is going to prison for murdering black people.”

Kenney said he admired Robinson for organizing the rally, but that rallies wouldn’t change anything.

“We’ve been marching for 50 years,” he said. “The first thing we should do is stop buying all these nice little Michael Kors bags and things that they don’t particularly want us to have.”

Kenney said blacks should start supporting each other instead of larger corporations and businesses, in the same way that the U.S. places sanctions on foreign countries.

The Rev. Richard Williams Jr. of Bristol Creek Missionary Church in Tabor City, North Carolina agreed.

“We need to stop putting our money in places that don’t accept us,” he said.

Williams, wearing a traditional dashiki, had elicited applause from the crowd after singing “We Shall Overcome.”

Williams grew up singing and graduated from the South Carolina Governor’s School for the Arts. He hadn’t planned on singing, but quickly agreed when asked.

“This is the first time I’ve seen something organized in our community to say the Myrtle Beach is standing up, Horry County is standing up and I wanted to be a part of it,” he said. “I was standing there, and someone saw me and recognized me and asked if I would fill in.”

But Christianity wasn’t the only religion represented during the gathering.

Naquan Muhammad, a Muslim, was there in support of the rally, and urged the crowd to become more involved in politics.

“We’ve got to monitor those in city hall, we’ve got to monitor those in the capital, we’ve got to monitor everybody to make sure everybody is doing what they’re supposed to be doing,” he said.

Muhammad led the crowd in a closing prayer as the event ended.

“I like to say I’m a child of God striving to be a servant of God,” said Muhammad. “I do practice the religion of Islam. We can’t put God in our own little boxes. The prayer was for everybody and anytime we pray, we pray for everybody. Because that’s the only way the world works. It only works with all of us.”

This story was originally published July 9, 2016 at 11:38 PM with the headline "Peace and rainbows mark protest in park, despite threats of violence."