'People want change': Racial justice advocates rally in Annville condemning mass shootings

As residents drove through the town square of Annville late Wednesday afternoon, they were surrounded from all sides by signs that read "Enough is enough" and "We Unite to Mourn the Dead."

"It was really important to me to visibly show the community that diversity, inclusion, and standing against hate matters, and it matters here," said Elizabeth Sterner, a Lebanon Valley College chemistry professor.

Standing near Route 422 with a sign titled "Black Lives are Brilliant," Sterner said Black Lives Matter protestors want to encourage people to to dig a little deeper when it comes to issues like racial injustice.

"It's moved away from just focusing on issues of policing and really looking at our society more broadly," she said.

That why more than 20 people from the Lebanon County Branch of the NAACP and the Annville Town Square Protesters for Racial Justice held a joint protest and rally Wednesday to remember the victims of a recent shooting in Buffalo, New York.

Organizers also expressed their sympathies to the residents of Uvalde, Texas. On Tuesday, nineteen children and two teachers were killed in a shooting at Robb Elementary School.

Organizers want to "keep people from being numb" to the injustices and devastation that is happening in the world, said Tony Fields, president of the NAACP chapter.

"Sometimes you hear stuff all the time and you just go numb to it cause it hurts so much," he said. "But we want to keep it before everyone...we want people to know that here in Lebanon County, in the little town of Annville, we are going to make a difference. We are here to make a difference."

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On May 14, 10 people were killed and three were injured in a shooting at a Tops Friendly Market in Buffalo, New York. Officials said that the alleged 18-year-old white shooter was inspired by a theory that white people are being replaced by Black and Latinos.

Wednesday also marked the two-year anniversary of the death of George Floyd, which sparked the Annville Town Square Protesters for Racial Justice to have weekly protests at the intersection. Floyd, a Black man, died after a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes.

"Things haven't changed much since George Floyd's murder two years ago today, so we are continuing to try and draw attention to this ongoing and pernicious problem of racism in American society," said Michael Schroeder, The Lebanon NAACP secretary and chief organizer of the Town Square Protestors. "We're struggling for reform in the criminal justice system, reform in law enforcement, an end to white supremacy and a cultural reckoning with the reality of racism in American society."

The problem, according to Fields, is that people don't know how to talk about change, and have the discussions of issues like racial injustice. But protests, like the one in Annville, are a way to make "positive noise" that things don't need to remain the same.

"I think one of the challenges we are facing as a country is we all have the same need," Fields said. "We want to be heard, we want to be respected. We want to be loved. We want to be honored. And I think even as you hear the horns blow, people support what is happening here. People want change."

Two years of protesting in the square has made a difference in the wider community, according to Sterner. Residents tend to honk more in support of their cause rather than shout hostility. But organizers biggest concern is keeping the conversation about issues like racial justice in the forefront of residents minds.

"We've seen that, on LVC's campus, there will be an incident, there will be a campus discussion about things, and then it will kind of wain," she said. "We're really talking about now "How do we sustain these conversations"... and what Mike has organized here with these ongoing demonstrations is part of that sustaining of the conversation."

Members of the NAACP have been reaching out to work with the Lebanon County Correctional Facility and the county commissioners, and is currently trying to bring the Pardon Project to Lebanon County.

"To often we have to many people, who have bad histories and made mistakes in life," Fields said. "But for 10 years or more they have not done anything, (and) they've been great citizens. So we're trying to help them get their records straightened out."

Organizers are running like David to face and challenge a Goliath of issues like mass shootings and racial injustice, Fields said. But they are just hoping for change in the end.

"I'm hoping people realize that though we may seem small in the big scheme of things, with the injustices and all this stuff we feel, but our voices are important," he said.

Still members of the Annville Town Square Protesters for Racial Justice plan to continue protests on the streets of Annville, to sustain the messages about racial equality to residents passing by.

"You cannot make an issue as entrenched as racism, sexism or ableism that's built up over decades and hundreds of years go away in a year or two," Sterner said. "The effort to correct these systemic issues will have to be as sustained as how they were developed in the first place."

Residents can find more information about the Lebanon Chapter of the NAACP and their events at lebanonnaacp.org.

Matthew Toth is a reporter for the Lebanon Daily News. Reach him at mtoth@ldnews.com or on Twitter at @DAMattToth

This article originally appeared on Lebanon Daily News: Racial justice advocates rally in Annville condemning mass shootings