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Thursday, June 25, 2020
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
MULTIMEDIA

Experiencing my small town’s Black Lives Matter protests

I grew up in Chelsea Michigan, a 
small town 20 minutes away from 
Ann Arbor. Chelsea is a racially 
homogenous 
community, 
and 
has very few minorities, so when 
protests for Black Lives Matter 
started happening in the end of 
May, I never thought they would 
happen in my community. Sure, 
I expected a few small isolated 
protests to pop up, but not much 
more than that. But much to my 
surprise, my town was holding a 
rally against racism in a local park. 
I packed up my camera and drove 
into town 30 minutes after the set 
start time, because I truly believed 
it would be a measly showing 
of some high school and college 
students.
When I passed Pierce Park, I was 
astonished. There were a couple 
hundred people, all six feet apart, 
in a circle around a microphone, 
where various members of the 
community spoke. I just couldn’t 
believe it. The age of attendees 
ranged from infants to senior 
citizens. The biggest surprise was 
how many older members of the 
community came to show their 
support.
I have never seen my small, 
white community come together 
like this before, unless it was for a 
high school football game, or the 
Christmas parade. The protest 
remained peaceful, everyone sat 
and did not move until the speakers 
were finished. Then, a small group 
of mostly high school and college 
students marched down Main 
Street. I figured that night was 
the end of it. Everyone showed up 
to support the community and we 
would never speak of it again. I was 
happily surprised by my town.

But later that day, I received 
several 
texts 
about 
a 
march 
planned for exactly a week later. I 
was once again surprised. I arrived 
at the starting location for the 
march (earlier this time) and there 
were less people than the rally, 
most likely because a march does 
not allow for any social distancing 
and did not allow the older or at risk 
populations to participate in the 
same capacity as the week before. 
The crowd gathered in Pierce 
Park, the location of the rally the 
week before, and were briefed about 
the route that they were planning 
on following. There were no official 
organizers of this protest.
They then promptly started 
marching right down Main Street, 
in the heart of our town. They were 
chanting loud enough for the whole 
town to hear.
Chelsea is known for two major 
landmarks, 
the 
Clock 
Tower 
standing on Main Street and the 
Jiffy Mix Factory (the only one in 
the world). The normally peaceful 
downtown disrupted with cries 
for change and justice. It was very 
powerful to see the protesters 
march down Main Street, passing 
these large icons of our town. 
Store owners looked through their 

windows at the protesters and 
people in cars stopped to raise their 
fists.
The protest then turned off 
Main Street and went through 
neighborhoods downtown, where 
houses had people came outside to 
see what was going on. Most people 
were cheering for the protestors 
and were looking on proudly of 
what their community was doing. 
The march picked up many people 
along the way that joined their 
cause as well.
The crowd became louder and 
louder as the march went on, 
shouting “say their names,” “no 
justice, no peace” and “these racist 
cops have got to go.”
The 
route 
ended 
in 
front 
of 
a 
Chelsea 
High 
School’s 
administrator home, to send a 
message of how change needs to 
start in the education system, while 
children are learning how they see 
the world, and our school systems 
need to lead by example. The crowd 
was now much bigger than when 
they started, now at about 100-150 
people.
The group then circled back and 
ended right where they started for 
an open mic.
I was incredibly moved by Diarra 
Seye, who spoke of her experience 
at Chelsea as one of the only black 
students, and as a Black woman 
living in America.
I never realized the treatment 
she was getting, when I was right 
inside the building with her. We 
were even in the tennis program 
together. “I don’t see my color 
but everyone else does, I feel like 
a normal person,” she remarked. 
What resonated with me the most 
was: “I didn’t know that people in 
Chelsea actually cared,” which was 
my attitude as well, but seeing how 
proud she was of our community 
made me so proud to be a part of it.

JULIA SCHACHINGER
Summer Managing Photo Editor

PHOTO ESSAY

