EAST GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — People assembled in a park in East Grand Rapids today for a Black Lives Matter protest organized by high school students.
The protest started at 2 p.m. with hundreds of people, mostly students, in the parking lot at East Grand Rapids Middle School.
See a photo gallery of the protest.
Watch the protest
Mark Herald – chief of the East Grand Rapids Department of Public Safety – used a megaphone to open the protest by telling the crowd, "It's your day. It's not my day. ... So just be safe and have a good day."
The crowd cheered and proceeded to march on Lakeside Dr. SE and fill into the center of John Collins Park on Reeds Lake.
Students with megaphones led the crowd in chants as they marched: "Say his name. George Floyd." "I can't breathe." "No justice, no peace." and more.
As the crowd stood on the park's grass, a female student asked them to kneel for nine minutes in silence in honor of George Floyd.
A number of students and adults then used a megaphone to address the crowd for just under two hours from a picnic area overlooking the park.
Standing by a railing, students used megaphones to lead more chants: "Tell me what democracy looks like. This is what democracy looks like." "Black lives matter." "Hands up, don't shoot." and more.
Just before 4 p.m., the remaining crowd marched back to the middle school parking lot, chanting some more, and broke up.
