Emancipate Cleveland holds final demonstration at monument
All photos by Rhianna Barrow
On Friday, Sept. 25, local Cleveland group Emancipate Cleveland held their final demonstration at the Confederate monument located between Ocoee, Broad and Eighth streets.
Emancipate Cleveland describes itself as “a grassroots organization working to create a more equitable city,” with a mission of “[ensuring that] the voices of our Black community are heard,” according to the group’s Instagram profile.
In a Sept. 25 post on Instagram and Facebook, Emancipate Cleveland declared they would hold one final demonstration at the monument that evening, after which they would “prepare to move on to focus on other ways to help the oppressed in our community.”
Kezmond Pugh is a leading member of Emancipate Cleveland and attended the demonstration on Friday.
Pugh clarified that while Friday’s demonstration would be the last to take place at the monument, it would not be the organization’s final demonstration.
“This is not our final demonstration, but we’re moving to different areas of the city, and we will now put ourselves in service projects,” Pugh said. “We will become a group that volunteers. We will lend our talents and our numbers to different organizations [like] the Salvation Army, United Way, Caring Place, different organizations around the city.”
“We’re stepping away from here and letting legal see what our options are, just getting a little breather,” Pugh said. “So we might show up at the mall one day. We might show up down at the museum one day — we don’t really know where we will be, but we’ll always announce it when we decide to demonstrate.”
Pugh mentioned Emancipate Cleveland will always protest the monument but may do so through other means, such as through writing, social media posts and meetings.
Chloe Emery and Peyton Clark are both members of Emancipate Cleveland, who attended Friday’s demonstration. They stressed the importance of the future long-term efforts of the organization.
“I definitely think one of [the demonstrations’] long-term goals is community reform, and I think the statue is an emblem of the community that needs reform,” Emery said. “I think the long-term goals are community development by not only removing symbols that represent oppression but then also funneling all this energy into building up communities.”’
Clark said the demonstrations at the monument would continue to be peaceful amid the tensions caused by the Sept. 23 grand jury announcement in the case of Breonna Taylor’s shooting, where one of three officers involved in the incident faces an indictment.
“We’re still keeping the peaceful approach even as emotional as it’s been this week,” Clark said. “I think there’s just a lot of hate in the air right now, and I think keeping the tension as low as we can is going to be a big part of [the demonstration] and going forward.”
Lee alumna and founding member of Emancipate Cleveland Sara Keel was also present at Friday’s demonstration, where she expressed her outlook on the organization’s demonstrations.
“What I hope we have is a more equitable Cleveland,” Keel said. “For Emancipate Cleveland, that’s one of our central goals. For me, that means a much more integrated community and visible black community in Cleveland.”
Keel stressed the organization’s goal of uniting racially-divided communities in Cleveland and mentioned that having empathy while voting is one way that can help bridge these divisions.
“What I really want for Emancipate Cleveland is for the white community to come together with the black community to show that their interests are important and that we all vote based on the interests of our whole community, not just as white and black communities separated,” Keel said.
Keel reiterated Pugh’s statement that Emancipate Cleveland intends to shift their activism towards other constructive projects, stating that the monument protests have succeeded in raising awareness of the organization’s cause.
“We’re definitely not giving up on moving the monument. We’re not giving up on that as a point of conversation,” Keel said. “But we have a lot of really highly-skilled and really motivated people in Emancipate Cleveland, and our goal was to start a conversation. That’s been accomplished, and now we need to use those skills for something else.”
During an Aug. 24 Cleveland City Council meeting, Vice Mayor Avery L. Johnson proposed the council create a task force to address the issues surrounding the monument. Johnson suggested members of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Emancipate Cleveland and the city council should comprise the task force to address issues related to the monument.
On Sept. 14, the city council released a statement concerning the monument.
“City Council does not have legal standing on this issue and will not engage or participate in any discussions surrounding the Monument unless a Tennessee court indicates that we must take action,” said the City Council. “However, we still intend to have a community process to look at ideas and methodologies to increase understanding of this issue.”
The city is creating a study group tasked with creating an educational exhibit to “tell the story and give the historical context of the perseverance and fairness in our community,” the statement said. In response to this statement, Emancipate Cleveland told News Channel 9 they were unsatisfied with the transition from a “task force” to a “study group.”
“We applauded our city council for making the decision to appoint a task force to research and discuss the Confederate monument in our downtown. The council created a task force for a completely different purpose, highlighting the very issues of city leadership that is unwilling to listen. Unity will not come from ignoring and deflecting problems they don’t have the courage to face,” Emancipate Cleveland said in a statement. “While we are sure this educational exhibit will be lovely, we are still waiting on this particular group of men to do what they said they would do.”
For more info about Emancipate Cleveland’s future activities, click here.
Carsen Holaday, Senior Reporter, contributed to this article.
