VIRGINIA BEACH — Demonstrators will take to parts of the Oceanfront and Granby Street in Norfolk Monday night.
Members and supporters of BlackLivesMatter757 will march to raise awareness of racial inequities they say exist in each city.
Representatives held a press conference in Hampton Monday afternoon to discuss the organizations #Shutdown757, a social media campaign to march down major roads in several cities.
Starting at 7:57 p.m. demonstrators will host marches in Hampton, Newport News, Portsmouth, Norfolk and Virginia Beach.
“We want change,” said JaPharii Jones, president of BlackLivesMatter757 during the press conference. “We don’t want to keep going in a circle. We can have yelling matches all year. We can have debates all year. We can have fighting and yelling matches all year, but when are we going to get together to get some actual change?”
The Virginia Beach protest, according to Jones, is due to issues with lack of diversity in business owners at the Oceanfront.
“You can do a duck, duck, goose and ask how many businesses on the Oceanfront are African American owned, female-owned or minority-owned. I don’t need a three-month study. All we need to do is go door-knocking like it’s campaign season and say ‘hey what is the ethnicity of the person that owns this store?”
According to Jones, Norfolk faces issues of its own with regard to gun violence and a need to refocus city resources.
“[Norfolk] puts more emphasis on trying to lock people up for many minor things like pan-handling,” Jones said.
Rocky Hines, founder of the Young Black Council in Portsmouth, echoed similar concerns for Norfolk, citing racial divide within the communities and a need to come together in solidarity to combat
“Norfolk has always been a huge issue with the racial divide,” Hines said. “Norfolk has always had an issue with killings within the neighborhoods and within the inner city.”
The march in Norfolk will begin at the Greyhound parking lot near Monticello Avenue and Granby Street, while the Virginia Beach protest will start at the Rudee Loop parking lot.
According to officials from both the Norfolk and Virginia Beach police departments, officers will take appropriate action during the protest without hindering their freedom of speech and right to peacefully protest.
“The Norfolk Police Department is aware of the Black Lives Matter march scheduled to occur this evening,” said Norfolk police spokesman Officer Daniel Hudson. “As such, Norfolk police personnel have been in contact with event organizers and are monitoring appropriately.”
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