<strong>By Mike McCombs</strong>
<strong>Photo by Bob Sofaly</strong>

Every day since May 30, protesters&nbsp;have occupied some&nbsp;portion of the parking lot&nbsp;in front of the old Piggly Wiggly&nbsp;at the intersection of Boundary&nbsp;Street and Ribaut Road.

The group originally gathered&nbsp;in response to the killing&nbsp;of George Floyd, a 46-year-old&nbsp;African American man, by the&nbsp;police in Minneapolis, Minn. But&nbsp;the protests, like some of those&nbsp;around the country, have become&nbsp;something more.

<b><i>“This teacher believes Black&nbsp;</i></b><b><i>Lives Matter.” – Protest sign.</i></b>

On Sunday, June 7, the protesters&nbsp;went on a “Peaceful&nbsp;March” from Henry C. Chambers&nbsp;Waterfront Park downtown, up&nbsp;Bay Street to Bladen Street, down&nbsp;Bladen to Boundary and then to&nbsp;the corner across from the courthouse&nbsp;all the while, sharing their&nbsp;messages of unity, nonviolence&nbsp;and most important of all, hope&nbsp;for the future.

The string of people, around&nbsp;175 long, carrying their signs, was&nbsp;a diverse group – young and old,&nbsp;male and female, black, white and&nbsp;brown.

<b><i>“Your silence is violence.” –&nbsp;</i></b><b><i>Protest sign.</i></b>

There were people trekking&nbsp;across town with people they&nbsp;would not usually take a short&nbsp;walk with.

The protests were initially organized&nbsp;by Tim Garvin and JaCorey Wright. Garvin is still playing&nbsp;a prominent role, speaking in&nbsp;the park before the group departed&nbsp;for the Piggly Wiggly.

“I see a lot of familiar faces,”&nbsp;Garvin said, standing in&nbsp;shirt and tie on a picnic table,&nbsp;clearly enthusiastic. “That’s&nbsp;good.”

During the protest the&nbsp;previous Sunday, Garvin, like&nbsp;many there, was positive but&nbsp;still a little on edge. This time&nbsp;around, seven days of making&nbsp;his voice heard later, there&nbsp;was a confidence.

“We want to be heard, we&nbsp;want to better our community,&nbsp;we want to be united,”&nbsp;Garvin said.

The march was still about&nbsp;Black Lives Matter. It was still&nbsp;about protesting police violence&nbsp;and racism and oppression&nbsp;and double standards.

<strong>“If you’re not outraged,&nbsp;you’re not paying attention.”&nbsp;</strong>– Protest sign.

But this group of protesters&nbsp;isn’t content to stand on&nbsp;the corner and elicit horn&nbsp;blowing. They want solutions.&nbsp;They don’t intend for things&nbsp;to go back to “normal.”

In the week since the&nbsp;protests began, the group&nbsp;has taken a name and has a&nbsp;Facebook page – Our Peaceful&nbsp;Protesters. Members of the&nbsp;group have met with Beaufort&nbsp;Mayor Billy Keyserling and&nbsp;other leaders, intent on doing&nbsp;what they can to fix the things&nbsp;that they feel need fixing.

<strong>“A system cannot fail&nbsp;those it wasn’t designed to&nbsp;protect.” – Protest sign.</strong>

Sunday’s march was organized&nbsp;by an 18-year-old. Jayda&nbsp;Scheper, a recent Beaufort&nbsp;Academy graduate, was asked&nbsp;to plan a march in honor of&nbsp;Floyd, whose funeral was&nbsp;Sunday.

“I was hesitant,” Scheper&nbsp;said. “It was a lot to ask, I&nbsp;didn’t want it to be half done,&nbsp;not for George Floyd.

But Sunday couldn’t have&nbsp;gone smoother for Scheper&nbsp;and her two 17-year-old&nbsp;friends, Braxton Tolbert and&nbsp;Shanese Bostick.

“It’s overwhelming,”&nbsp;Scheper said. “I’m speechless&nbsp;honestly. I never would have&nbsp;expected for me and my two&nbsp;friends, … we’re teenagers,&nbsp;for us to plan something and&nbsp;have this big of a turnout. It’s&nbsp;amazing.

“The amount of support&nbsp;that we’ve had in our community,&nbsp;not that I thought that&nbsp;people wouldn’t come out.&nbsp;But there’s been people bringing&nbsp;water every day, restaurants&nbsp;catered to the people&nbsp;out here. The amount of love,&nbsp;I didn’t think there would be hate,&nbsp;necessarily, but the amount&nbsp;of love has outweighed the&nbsp;hate.”

<strong>“You can’t have unity&nbsp;without U and I.” – Protest&nbsp;sign</strong>

Despite all the support,&nbsp;though, Scheper, who will begin&nbsp;working toward a career&nbsp;in law this fall at Winthrop,&nbsp;knows this is an opportunity&nbsp;to effect real change, something&nbsp;that is rare.

“We need action behind&nbsp;our words,” she said. “Without&nbsp;action, our words are just&nbsp;words and nothing else.”

<em>Above: A crowd of 150 to 200 people of all ages marched and carried signs in support of Our Peaceful Potesters and Black Lives Matter on Sunday from Henry C.&nbsp;</em><em>Chambers Waterfront Park to Beaufort City Hall without incident</em>.&nbsp;