LEWISTON — Organizers of a racial justice rally and march set for Lewiston and Auburn on Sunday night said they are trying for a family-friendly vibe, but a frank attitude.
“This is an event that is going to be peaceful, but it is not going to be based around folks’ fragility,” Melissa Dunn of the Neighborhood Housing League said. “We are empowering leaders — or future leaders — in our community and giving them an opportunity to really express themselves freely.”
The event, called “I Love My Blackness and Yours: Freedom Rally, Vigil, March,” is scheduled from 7 to 9 p.m. Sunday starting in Lewiston’s Simard-Payne Memorial Park.
Dunn’s league is working with Auburn’s First Universalist Church, Maine Immigrant Refugee Services and the Central Maine Showing Up for Racial Justice group to organize the rally.
The Central Maine racial justice group is known primarily for sponsoring rallies on the fourth Monday each month along the Longley Bridge between Lewiston and Auburn.
Dunn said the groups have been planning an event focused on racial violence for several weeks, and it came to a head after the events in Baton Rouge and Dallas.
“We were compelled by the violence against black lives at the hands of police brutality and the graphic, traumatic images we’ve been seeing on social media,” Dunn said.
The vigil will include talks and training, she said.
“We’ll start with an introduction and some training for folks from the community so we can keep one voice,” Dunn said.
Next, the group will march from the park and down Oxford Street to Cedar Street. They’ll cross the Bernard Lown Peace Bridge into New Auburn, continue up Mill Street to Main Street, up Main Street to Court Street and cross the Longley Bridge back into Lewiston.
Dunn said she and other organizers have met with Lewiston and Auburn police to explain what’s happening. They are planning a peaceful rally, unlike the Portland Black Lives Matter rally last Friday that closed downtown streets for several hours and ended with 18 protesters arrested.
“Our goal is to make sure that nobody gets arrested,” Dunn said. “We do not want any escalation, even from the opposition. We want to be civil. We have stories to share and we want to be able to get our point across.”
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