Black Lives Matter protests continue in Cape Girardeau at Freedom Corner

For the fourth consecutive weekend following George Floyd’s death at the hands of Minneapolis police officers, demonstrations were held in Cape Girardeau to express local support for the Black Lives Matter movement.

A few dozen demonstrators gathered at Freedom Corner in Capaha Park on Sunday to support Black Lives Matter and partake in silence for 8 minutes and 46 seconds in memory of Floyd. After the silence, event organizer Elwood Voss read the names of victims of police brutality and shared statistics about local racial disparities in police stops.

Voss said he was one of about half a dozen protesters who organized Sunday’s peaceful protest as a way to maintain awareness of the Black Lives Matter movement at the local level.

“We didn’t want Cape Girardeau to think that the Black Lives Matter movement was already over because we had our one protest,” Voss said. “We’re here to make change, and we’re here to try to make Cape Girardeau a better place for every citizen.”

Damien “Reggie” Applewhite, a 20-year-old bi-racial man from Chaffee, Missouri, said he began coming to Freedom Corner about two weeks ago to host conversations educating locals about the Black Lives Matter movement and participated in Sunday’s demonstration as a way to keep people from forgetting about issues of racial injustice.

Applewhite also said it was “fantastic” to see such a large number of supporters come to Freedom Corner over the recent weeks to offer food, drinks and general support to demonstrators.

With a crowd of about one-fifth the size of Cape Girardeau’s largest Black Lives Matter demonstration May 31, Voss noted the smaller group size attracted a greater number of vocal dissenters from passersby traveling on Broadway.

“We had a lot of good honks of support. A lot of people came out. But we also had a lot of people flip us off [or] scream out All Lives Matter,” Voss said. “... I understand it can be difficult to challenge your upbringing, but in this situation, you have to seek to educate yourself. It’s the only way we can really seek to try and improve things.”

Applewhite noted that while Sunday saw an increase in dissent, no one was overly aggressive. Regardless of the varying levels of disagreement with the Black Lives Matter movement, Applewhite stood firm as a supporter.

“If people start coming at you, or people start saying things to you to try to bother you and try to make you leave, that’s because they feel threatened by it,” Applewhite said. “So they’re starting to think about it, and the more people think about it and the more people get angry about it, maybe they’ll reach out and talk to somebody. So, I’m just going to keep doing this because this is how I want to spend my days. Especially right now, because it’s not getting any better.”