‘White coats for black lives’ — doctors, nurses protest; teen leads march in Miami Beach

On the day that George Floyd was laid to rest in Houston, Miami Beach became the latest city to join a national chorus in support of the Black Lives Matter movement. Protesters also took to the streets of Key West and downtown Miami for the 11th day of demonstrations against police brutality and systemic racism.

Since protests started on May 30, five days after Floyd was killed by a Minneapolis police officer, armed police and state troopers have blocked demonstrators from crossing over Biscayne Bay onto Miami Beach. So Egyptia Green, a 13-year-old Beach resident, organized her own demonstration along Ocean Drive in South Beach, drawing a handful of people on a peaceful march.

“I don’t want to just protest for George Floyd, but protest for all black people out there and [say] that their lives should matter,” said the rising eighth-grader at Ransom Everglades School in Coconut Grove, holding a sign that read “BLM #EnoughisEnough.” The 10-block march from Fifth to 15th streets ended with a kneeling moment of silence.

George Floyd, a 46-year-old unarmed black man whose death at the hands of Minneapolis cops ignited a wave of protests and calls for police accountability across the nation, was celebrated at his funeral on Tuesday in Houston. A horse-drawn carriage led the cortege to Houston cemetery where he was buried in a gold coffin alongside his mother as crowds lined the streets to pay their respects.

In downtown Miami, another young girl highlighted how the demonstrations have gained the support of a broad swath of the community. Amid a crowd of white coats and green scrubs during a protest organized by medical professionals, 7-year-old Zuri Copeland marched alongside her mom.

“She has been asking me what it means to be racist,” said pediatric pharmacist Valencia Copeland, Zuri’s mom. “I thought it was time to take her to a peaceful protest.”

The younger Copeland, who shares a birthday with Breonna Taylor, had been asking questions about protests. Her mother told her about Taylor, an emergency room technician who was shot and killed by Louisville police in her Kentucky home on March 13. She would have turned 27 on June 5. Police had fired into the wrong apartment, shooting her at least eight times.

Organized by Dr. Anthony Okafor, an anesthesiology resident at Jackson Memorial Hospital, the march attracted about 100 people Tuesday night in front of the Miami Dade College Medical Campus. He said doctors want to fight injustices that affect their patients and the communities they serve.

“I just couldn’t keep quiet anymore,” said Okafor, adding that protesters planned to march through downtown Miami as part of the “White Coats for Black Lives” protest. “We are all here today because we felt something deep ... something changed when we saw a man get murdered in broad daylight,” he added.

Dr. Shanique Wilson, an internal medicine resident at Jackson Memorial Hospital, led marchers and their families down Northwest 12th Avenue, leading them in a chant: “The people, united, will never be defeated.”

Wilson said she has been working long shifts and hasn’t been able to attend recent protests, but wanted to show her support Tuesday. As a black doctor, she said she finds herself code switching her language between colleagues and patients to bridge gaps where there are racial disparities.

For example, some colleagues see patients as obese where she sees them as experiencing food deserts in predominantly black neighborhoods that have less access to fresh and healthy foods.

“This is why I wanted to be a doctor,” she said.

Dr. La’Nya Odoms, a pediatric internal medicine resident, spoke to the crowd of doctors about the times she has been mistaken for a janitor, cafeteria worker and landscaper at Jackson Memorial Hospital, where she works.

Odoms, a fourth-year resident, said she and other doctors need to use their privilege to change that narrative.

“This movement is just the beginning,” she said. “This is our new normal.”

In Key West, about 25 people gathered in the 200 block of Duval Street at 6 p.m. in a show of solidarity with Black Lives Matter.

Almost all of the protesters were white. But many said being human was the only requirement to take a stand against police brutality.

“Some of our lives get taken away and some don’t based on the color of our skin,” said Lucy Barnett, 33, a bartender in Key West. “It’s insidious. It happens everywhere. It creeps up and you don’t even know it’s there — especially if you’re white because you don’t understand.”

Miami Herald staff writer Gwen Filosa contributed to this report.