DETROIT – Sunday was a day of demanding change.
Thousands of people marched along some of Metro Detroit’s busiest streets calling for an end to racial inequality.
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Detroit’s 8 p.m. curfew came and went Saturday with protesters still in the streets, but the ninth night of protesting ended peacefully.
From Michigan Avenue to Campus Martius, down Gratiot, up Jefferson Avenue to Hart Plaza and then back to Detroit Police Headquarters. Thousands of people marched roughly five miles, throughout Downtown Detroit, calling for a change. That’s the message many echoed loud and clear, no matter your age or color of your skin, “It’s important to stand up for what you believe in, support other people who are, well fighting injustice basically,” said Andrew Klezck.
“It’s been a time for a change for over 80 years. I hate that you know, the death of that individual had to be the cause of this but I think we’re actually going to see some type of change,” said Akim Pizana.
A change Vintory Middleton has been demanding for a long time, “When I was 13 years old, I was in the original ‘I have a dream speech,’ where MLK came to Detroit to speak before he went onto D.C. I remember being a teenager, I’ll never forget I had on my blue dress and I walked proudly down in the march.”
Middleton said a lot has changed since then and somethings haven’t, “We’ll still fighting the same fight believe it or not and this is 50 plus years later. This is unbelievable, but it’s a good thing. We’re doing it peacefully here in Detroit. Never in a million years, I thought we’ve come a lot farther than that now, well we haven’t but here we go again, but there’s always hope.”
The organizers of the march said they are drafting up the final version of their demands to Police Chief James Craig and Mayor Mike Duggan. They’re expecting to submit those demands soon.