Central Indiana communities are showing up in a big way for rallies in their towns demanding racial equality for all their neighbors. Many of these demonstrations have been planned by young people determined to make the world a better place.
"No justice, no peace. No justice, no peace."
That's just one of the many chants you're going to be hearing for quite some time because the young people out here in Perry Township are serious. They want to see our world change for the better, starting with their community.
"Perry Township schools needs to hold itself accountable," one student said. "Don't be a diverse school, but ignore your diverse students. Don't be a diverse school, but ignore your diverse problems."
The crowd watched and listened as their friends of color talked about personal experiences with racism and how the deaths of people like Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor affect them.
"We know what we deserve. We deserve equal rights," another student said. "We deserve to be able to walk down the street. We deserve to be able to job in our own freaking neighborhood without being gunned down. We deserve to go to sleep at night and not worry about a cop coming into our house while we sleep and shooting us."
"We need to start speaking out and standing up whether you're black, white, Hispanic, Asian, we need to all stand together against this," Kiara Moore, who organized the rally, said.
The rally ended honoring George Floyd's life sitting and kneeling silently for 8 minutes and 46 seconds.
In Avon, hundreds of people came out to support the Black Lives Matter rally organized by students.
"When we planned it originally, we thought maybe 50 to 100 people would come out, but nothing like this," Marilyn Kolpien, Black Lives Matter Avon, said. "They've been so supportive."
These young people shared their stories to a crowd that wanted to hear them — stories of dealing with racism or being afraid for their friends because they're black.
"Can y'all stop calling the cops on us for living?" one student said. "Because you see how it turns out."
There was some push back but the organizers made it clear, they weren't going to let anything stop them from having the rally.
"People were up here telling us don't speak, don't come to Avon, stay home, stop it," another speaker said. "To those people I wanna tell you something. Look at the people to your left and your right. Look at the generation right next to you. This generation will be the last generation to experience what's going on."
