Youth-driven Longmont 4 Racial Justice Protest planned Saturday

A  youth-centric rally and march focused on racial justice are set to hit the streets of Downtown Longmont this weekend.

The Longmont 4 Racial Justice Protest organized by the Boulder County Collective will take place from 12:30 to 3:30 p.m. Saturday, with participants gathering at Sixth Avenue and Main Street. 

“What has been missing for years in the conversation around racial justice is that youth perspective,” organizers stated in a news release. “That all changes this Saturday … (when) hundreds of youth, allies and accomplices will meet to sound the sirens and make the future county leadership voices heard by taking a stand for Jorge Rodriguez and Elijah.”

Rodriguez is a Honduran immigrant who was attacked Aug. 9 at Garden Acres Park. Rodriguez, 30, told police he was beaten by a man who yelled “Get out of our country,” according to the GoFundMe page set up to help him defray expenses. 

Elijah is Elijah McClain, the 23-year-old Black man who died in August 2019 a few days after Aurora police placed him in since-banned carotid chokeholds and pinned him to the ground, and paramedics injected him with the sedative ketamine. 

“The assaults of these two men remind us all that racism is alive and inescapable in Colorado and Boulder County specifically,” the release states. 

The purpose of Saturday’s protest, which will be led by the youth leaders of the Boulder County Collective, “is to demand action from Longmont, as well as Boulder County, against the blatant racial injustices pervading the community,” according to the release. “As an organization, the Boulder County Collective aims to create a healthy and vibrant community where public safety is incorporated with public services such as mental and physical health care, education, housing, economics and the arts.” 

Speakers slated to take part Saturday include Isaiah Smith, a musician and activist originally from Longmont; Dean Smith, a therapist and national activist; Vanessa Ramirez, an active Longmont community member; and Arianna Ngnomire, a Boulder County native and activist. 

More information about the Longmont 4 Racial Justice Protest is available here. 

Following the local event, participants can join a caravan to Denver to take part in a demonstration on the steps of the state Capitol. The caravan is dubbed 37 Miles For Racial Justice, and more information is available here.