Selmer residents march for George Floyd
SELMER, Tenn. — Another West Tennessee town took to the streets to honor George Floyd and aimed for change.
“We have to march not only for equal rights, but we know that there’s things that’s going on in the country that’s not exactly right,” Pastor Prentis Burdine at Bethel Springs United Methodist Church said.
That’s why Burdine and at least a hundred others marched from Selmer City Park to the McNairy County Court House.
“It’s way overdue. We’ve been fighting this fight all of my life, so it’s a never ending story. We just have to fight the good fight of faith and just carry on,” Burdine said.
“We need to all pull together to help each other out. Jesus said ‘You are my disciples, and we love one another.’ Loving one another does not have a skin color,” Pastor Clifford Wynn at Cypress Creek Church said.
Wynn and his wife, Janetta, helped organize this peaceful protest.
After protesters marched through town, they heard from a few speakers on the court house steps.
Protesters also had the chance to fill out the census and register to vote.
“We’re looking to try and change the policy, so implementing the NAACP, the importance of voting, the census. We’re trying to encourage the people to come out,” Wynn said.
“We want to be seen, we want to be heard, and we want to be counted,” Janetta Wynn said. “We wanted to make sure it got done. We were kind of last on the totem pole.”
Burdine said he hopes protesters take something away from the march.
“If we can touch anybody’s life, we hope they may love one another instead of hate one another,” Burdine said. “As I go and pass on, these young people need to know one another instead of hate one another.”
Both city and county mayors also spoke at the protest.
