From Corbin to Morehead, Black Lives Matter protests gain support in rural Kentucky towns

Black Lives Matter protests moved outside the state’s urban centers to rural Kentucky this weekend.

Gathering at town centers, demonstrators marched and chanted for racial justice in Corbin, Morehead, Barbourville, Richmond and many more Kentucky cities and towns.

A crowd of about 250 people gathered at Fountain Park in Morehead Saturday afternoon. Organizers encouraged speakers to tell their stories or offer their support to the black community.

Morehead Organizer Autumn Dennis said it was important to be an ally to the black community in her town. Dennis said she witnessed “race wars in high school” and that sometimes kids were afraid to come to school.

“It’s everywhere,” Dennis said. “It doesn’t matter that the big cities are protesting because if the small cities don’t protest, there’s still silence.”

The group marched down Main Street as police blocked off the road, stopping at Freedom Park. The protest was peaceful, though some exchanges occurred with a small group of counter-protesters. Some Black Lives Matter protesters laid on the ground yelling “I can’t breathe,” the last phrase that both George Floyd and Eric Garner said before they died. Nearby was a car with “All Lives Matter“ painted on its back windshield.

The group continued marching to Lawrence W. Wetherby Gymnasium, gathering to chant, lay down on the ground or hold their hands in the air, saying “hands up, don’t shoot.”

Alexa Clark spoke to the Morehead group and said the community can no longer close their eyes to racism.

“Racism is happening here, and we haven’t even started to have a conversation with our families so that when they say ‘Why Morehead?’, that’s why,” Clark said. “When they say ‘Why Morehead?’, it’s because police officers who are corrupt have been arrested all over this country this week. It is because corrupt police officers have been put on administrative leave. We are here to demand justice for George Floyd and Breonna Taylor.”

An event Friday in downtown Corbin was peaceful, too. About 100 protesters came out in support of racial justice, holding up signs and chanting “Black Lives Matter” at times, stretching the length of a city block in front of Nibroc Park by 8 p.m. Friday.

One man yelled a profanity at the demonstrators as he drove by, and another in a pickup truck slowed down and said to demonstrators on the sidewalk, “Y’all know white privilege is a myth, right?”

However, there were far more expressions of support, with dozens of drivers honking or waving in support as they drove by.

People at the Corbin rally said they felt it was important to show solidarity in a small town with those calling for racial justice elsewhere around the country.

Rufus Jones, 41, a black man who lives in nearby London, came to the demonstration with his wife Rachel, and two of their children, Rufus V, who is 12, and 1-year-old Cayden.

Jones said he routinely faced racism and discrimination, including racial profiling by police, when he lived in Cleveland, but had not experienced incidents of racism since moving to London two years ago.

Jones said he was tired of having to explain the ugliness of racism to his children, and tired of some people not believing it even exists.

Jones said it was encouraging to see white people rally in support of racial justice. That is what will bring change, he said.

“The fact that they’re willing to give their time out here for something that they believe, that’s what’s going to give tired people like myself – and I ain’t alone in this, as a black man – tired people like myself are gonna have the strength . . . and say ‘You know what, no, we can’t be okay with this,’ ” Jones said. “This is not who America is. This is not who God is. This is not what’s supposed to be normal.”

Jones walked along the line of demonstrators at one point filming them on his camera, saying “I am not alone.”

If the rally in Corbin raises awareness of racism, it’s a success, Jones said.

Abbey Grace, 22, a Corbin resident and one of the organizers of the event, said she hoped the rally would raise awareness of racism, lead people to educate themselves and their children about the problem and show support for the victims.

“People think that when we say Black Lives Matter, they think that we’re saying that other lives don’t, but that’s the whole reason we’re saying black lives, because they’re the lives that are being treated like they don’t matter.” Grace said.

“I really hope that they realize that racism is a serious problem and it needs to be taken seriously,” Grace said. “I hope that just a change comes about.”

At times, demonstrators in Morehead yelled “silence is violence.” Elbert Williams’s voice was hoarse from leading chants as the group stopped at the gymnasium and walked back on Kentucky 32.

“I thought it was a good thing to keep chanting because we say ‘silence is violence,’ so in that regard we can’t be quiet,” Williams, a Morehead resident, said. “We can’t keep our month shut in situations like this. Even if your voice goes out, be as loud as you can.”

Clark said she appreciated the support that came out in Morehead even when family or friends were not supportive of Black Lives Matter.

“I appreciate each and every one of you because it cost you something to be here,” she said. “I know as an organizer I have personally been bullied this week. I have been sent anti-black lives matter propaganda while organizing this event. I know it will cost you something to stand up and say something, so I am proud of each and every one of you.”

Lisa Garrison, a city commission candidate in Corbin who served as an advisor to those organizing the demonstrations, said about 140 people attended the first event there Thursday evening. More Corbin rallies were scheduled for Saturday and Sunday evenings.

Garrison said there was some pushback Thursday. A few people heckled the demonstrators as they drove by, with a few yelling the N word, she said. A small group of men stood across the street from demonstrators at one point Thursday holding guns. One person held up a Confederate flag across the street from the demonstrators, and one man called her and others “race traitors,” Garrison said.

Police told the man who made the comment to leave, Garrison said.

Still, there were far more expressions of support than negative comments, Garrison said. Hunter Lay, who was at the rally Friday evening and took part in a small march in Corbin earlier in the week, said police officers knelt with the marchers when they prayed outside City Hall that day.

Garrison is part of the Sunup Initiative, which works to promote racial justice in Corbin.

The name is a play on the fact that the city once had a reputation as a “sundown town” – a place black people needed to get out of before dark because of racial animus.

The city was the scene of a notorious incident in October 1919 in which a white mob forced scores of black people out of town aboard Louisville & Nashville cars.

That stain stuck to the town for generations, but members of the Sunup Initiative and others have worked to change that.

Some people at the demonstration Friday said racism and prejudice still exist, but that there had been progress against racial prejudice in town..

“It’s a sundown town no more,” Garrison said.

This story was originally published June 6, 2020 at 9:46 PM.