Activists remember George Floyd, Adam Toledo, those killed by police during vigil at Memorial Park in DeKalb

DeKALB – Days after a jury found former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin guilty of all charges related to the murder of George Floyd, a Black man, dozens of DeKalb area activists attended a local vigil Friday to honor those killed at the hands of law enforcement.

Jocelyn Santana, one of the leaders of the Black Lives Matter DeKalb IL group, recited several names of those to be remembered during the Friday vigil at Memorial Park, at the corner of First Street and Lincoln Highway in DeKalb. The names listed included Minnesota men Daunte Wright and George Floyd, Chicago 13-year-old Adam Toledo, and Ma’Khia Bryant, who was shot and killed by Columbus, Ohio police on Tuesday around the same time former Minneapolis Police Ofc. Derek Chauvin was found guilty on all counts for the murder of Floyd.

“The list is too long,” Santana said to vigil attendees. “Too long.”

[ Photos: Local activists host vigil for those killed by police ]

Maurice McDavid, of DeKalb, a local pastor and a principal at a public school in West Chicago, said he spoke of the current events to his fifth graders.

“The book of Ecclesiastes chapter three reminds us that there’s a time for everything, a time to plant and a time to harvest,” McDavid said. “A time to laugh and a time to cry, and tonight, as much as we seek change and want change tonight, I would ask you to just take a moment and let tonight be a moment of grief.”

Attendants were encouraged to bring their own battery-powered candles or download the virtual candle smartphone app, according to the vigil’s flyer. They also were encouraged to write messages with sidewalk chalk at the corner of First Street and Lincoln Highway.

During a moment of silence for those who died due to police actions, someone who was driving past the corner at about 5:15 p.m. yelled at vigil attendees and organizers and referred to the Ku Klux Klan before driving away.

Leading up to the vigil, Santana said she saw a lot of comments on social media from community members about how they think it’s not necessary to hold a vigil like this, since incidents like those that have happened in Minneapolis or Chicago resulting in someone dying when encountering police haven’t happened in DeKalb.

“It is necessary,” Santana said. “It’s necessary to continue to bring light. ... We don’t have to have a violent situation for there to be light and community awareness, community accountability to our local agencies, members of authority – things along those lines – to ensure that we are working toward that equitable access and inclusion that we want to see.”

The vigil comes after the release of recent video footage of Toledo, a Little Village teenager, being shot and killed by Chicago police. The video footage showed Toledo was unarmed and had his hands in the air before he was shot by Chicago police. Toledo later died at the scene.

Near-daily protests began in DeKalb County after May 30, 2020, after Floyd died when Chauvin pressed his knee on Floyd’s neck for nearly nine minutes. As Chauvin’s related jury trial began, local protests have popped up once again. After deliberations Monday and Tuesday, the jury in Chauvin’s trial reached guilty verdicts on all counts for charges of second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.

Chauvin could be sent to prison for decades.

The vigil also follows the April 11 death of 20-year-old Daunte Wright in Minnesota. After Wright’s death, Minneapolis police authorities said the officer who shot Wright, a white woman named Kimberly Potter, who’d worked as a police officer since 1995, had confused her firearm with her Taser.

Authorities said Potter meant to pull her Taser stun gun instead when she fired and killed Wright, a Black man, during a traffic stop. Potter later resigned and has since been charged with second-degree manslaughter. She was released on a $100,000 bail this week.

Janek Sunga, a political science doctoral student at Northern Illinois University, said he encourages those who call themselves allies of people of color and members of the LGBTQIA+ community to advocate for legislation that gets “police officers off of pedestals.” He said he decided to attend the vigil to acknowledge the progress made in Chauvin being held accountable for Floyd’s murder but recognize there’s more work to be done.

“It affects me because I’m a Black man living in America and in the back of my mind is always, ‘What is my next encounter with the police going to be?’ And it also affects my friends as well,” Sunga, who is originally from Kenya, said.

Kelsey Pann, a DeKalb resident and NIU undergraduate student, said they are originally from Rockford and both of their parents are police officers. They said they were on their way home from their job at Starbuck’s when they passed by the vigil and decided to attend.

Pann said they have had friends who have said to them that maybe the group should not be in certain areas at night because of fears of encountering police. That generally isn’t something Pann, a white person, has had to put too much thought into after being raised by cops, they said.

“I think it’s just important to show up,” Pann said. “It’s important to show up when you can. You know, a lot of people are very performative – they’ll say Black lives matter and they’ll post a black square on their Instagram page but don’t do any of the work. They don’t contribute to mutual aid. It’s important to just do whatever you can, whether it’s physically showing up or it’s monetarily or any other way. It’s important to mean what you say.”

Joe Mitchell, pastor at New Hope Baptist Church in DeKalb, said there is still a lot of work to do for social justice and holding people in power accountable. Whether it’s helping people to get registered to vote and showing up to the polls or advocating for better housing conditions and tangible solutions to food insecurity, there are plenty of things people can do going forward, Mitchell said.

“You fight racism with unity, and if you allow me to push that a little father, I would say you fight all -isms with unity,” Mitchell said. “I think the more people that get involved, the more people that leave their subdivisions and their comfy homes and get involved, the more change that we can have in our communities.”

• This story was updated at 9:30 p.m. Friday, April 23, 2021 to include further comment from vigil organizers and attendees.