'Freedom, liberty, where's that?': Canton marches against end of Roe, police violence
CANTON – On the evening of the Fourth of July, while parts of the city enjoyed cookouts and holiday festivities, more than 400 Canton residents donned black clothes and carried protest signs downtown, rallying against civil rights infringements.
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"I decided the Fourth was the best day because nobody has freedom at all and I felt like we needed to speak out about that," organizer Brittany Haynman said. "I felt like everybody needed to show up as a unified unit, essentially, because I feel like everybody is always fighting over whose is a bigger issue and we have to stop doing that and we have to unify and be all together. Because if we're not, it's not going to get done.”"
The Freedom March focused largely on the recent Supreme Court ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade and has stripped abortion access in much of the country. But speakers also made a point to discuss police violence and the killing of James Williams in Canton earlier this year and of Jayland Walker in Akron last week.
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"I felt like the biggest people that deserve the platform the most were the minority groups, because they are the ones that have been fighting this entire time," Haynman said. "Us as white women are just now being affected by it, and a lot of the protests are geared towards white women."
The event kicked off with a rally featuring several speakers before the crowd marched around several blocks of downtown. Speakers shared stories of their own abortions, or barriers they faced accessing health care. One speaker detailed the abuse she suffered as a child in the foster system, while another shared the ways that her Jewish faith calls her to take actions to heal the world.
Jolanda Jackson is a Canton activist who spends an hour every Wednesday with other activists demanding justice for James Williams, a Canton man killed by police on New Year's Eve. She said that unity is a focus because everyone is in the same fight for equality and justice.
"Freedom, liberty, where's that? We don't see it," Jackson said. "We’re just trying to see that same dream that Martin had. We're the dreamers.”
The rally was attended by demonstrators of all demographics.
Ginger Green, a Canton resident who was a child when the original Roe decision was made, said she was raised by parents who taught her that freedom in the United States meant being allowed to make one’s own choices. She said even though she knew the Supreme Court decision was coming, the day Roe fell was terrible, but she’s inspired to only fight harder.
"It's Fourth of July and I feel like my independence has been given away in many ways," Green said. "I'm very, very disappointed. The shirt that I'm wearing is from the March for Women's Lives in 2004 in Washington, and I can't believe that we've had these rights all these years and we still have to get out and fight to keep them. It's ridiculous to me."
State Reps. Emilia Sykes, Thomas West urge protesters to vote
Amid calls for justice and community support was another key action item: vote.
State Rep. Thomas West, D-Canton, spoke at the rally and emphasized just how much of an uphill battle Democrats have in Ohio, where the Republican Party controls both legislative chambers and the governor’s office.
He said that sitting on his committees — Health and Human Services, Medicaid Oversight — he hears every day how his opponents want to take away access to care.
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"We need to make certain that we knock doors, that we're going through the suburbs where people are quiet, focused on their yard, focused on their flowers, and in the inner city they’re focused on going to the store and how they're going to get food on their table," West said. "But they’ve got to get out to the ballot box."
State Rep. Emilia Sykes, D-Akron, also spoke at the Canton rally Monday night. She’s running for U.S. representative in the hopes of taking over the seat from Tim Ryan, who is running for U.S. Senate. She empathized with those who have been let down by their government officials.
Sykes quoted civil rights leader Fannie Lou Hamer, saying that nobody is free until everybody is free, and encouraged demonstrators to lean into their communities and organize for collective voting action.
"I'm going to do the thing that everybody hates elected officials do," Sykes told the crowd. "We all talk to you about how this election is the most important election of our lifetime. But this is what I'm going to tell you all: this election is the most important election of our lifetime."
Sam Zern can be reached at szern@cantonrep.com or 330-580-8322. You can also find her on Twitter at @sam_zern.
This article originally appeared on The Repository: Amid end of Roe, police violence, Canton marches for freedom
