Protest Draws More Than 1,000 to Downtown Winston-Salem

A protest that began in an empty arts district parking lot spilled over into the streets of Winston-Salem, with marchers eventually shutting down U.S. 52, a highway long seen as a dividing line between black and white city residents.

It was many of the same group of organizers who put together a march to the courthouse Monday. But this time, the crowd was much bigger — more than 1,000 people — and the leaders urged those in attendance not to march.

But hundreds did, moving in different groups. 

Pastor Paul Robeson Ford led a group of marchers in a call-and-response chant of “No justice, no peace.”

ICYMI: Video of the splinter march through downtown Winston-Salem https://t.co/6gMtfxh0tT

— Paul Garber (@PBGonWFDD) June 3, 2020

Some marchers went to the south, leading to a shutdown of Fifth and other streets. Others went north, going up to the police station named in honor of late black City Councilwoman Vivian Burke.

It was there that organizer Frankie Gist broadcast video on social media capturing a tearful police Chief Catrina Thompson talking about her fears for her autistic son.

By nightfall protesters had shut down all lanes of U.S. 52, and were making their way back downtown, marching up Fifth Street chanting “Black lives matter!”

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It all ended peacefully when the marchers returned to Trade Street. Police, who had been busy moving with the crowd and closing down streets, said there had been no major incidents.

Joshua Black, another organizer, said he was concerned when he first heard that people had splintered off from the protest to march, but was pleased that it ended without destruction as they had asked them to do.

“I think the climate that we set during that moment in time kind of helped to not have any destruction in the city even if two to three hundred people went out and marched and even went on (U.S.) 52 to shut it down on their own,” says Black.