( PHOTOGRAPH BY WOLF MATTHEWSON )
Snapshot:
Protect Black Lives Protest
It’d been raining and dark all afternoon but, by the evening of June 5, when protesters
shouted out the names of slaughtered black Americans — “George Floyd! Breonna Taylor!
Ahmaud Arbery! Say their names!” — the sky above Providence had cleared to receive
them. An estimated 10,000 people assembled on the State House lawn that night, following
marches from Kennedy Plaza and Central High School, to protest systemic racism and
police brutality toward black people. It was the second such protest in the capital city that
week — a massive grassroots action organized by local youth and, by some estimates, the
largest demonstration in Rhode Island’s history. —CASEY NILSSON
96 RHODE ISLAND MONTHLY l JULY 2020