Joining Plfeger in the protest was Reverend Jesse Jackson Sr. and Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson. The three linked arms and led the protestors in a march that stretch from 68th street to 79th street. Although those were the most prominent faces within the demonstration, there was also lesser known activists who not only participated but help organize it.
Two of those people were youth activists Rie’Onna Holmon and Trevon Bosley. Holman who is only 15, attends Gwendolyn Brooks College Prep in Chicago and shared a story of violence she witnessed with chicagotonight.wttw.com. “A couple of weeks ago, a couple of days before my last day of school my (CTA) bus got shot up,” Holmon said. “It really affected me because not only did I fear losing my life that day but there were a lot of people on that bus. A lot of young children screaming and crying.”
Bosley who was also part of the the March for Our Lives protest in Washington D.C., this year also has experienced gun violence through his brother, who was killed when he was seven. “I want people in the city to understand that Chicago’s violence is still happening, still growing and that is not just something that we should be allowing to occur on a day-to-day basis,” Bosley said. “I want elected officials and other people in power and people running for office to understand that we are protesting issues they need to be tackling. … We want to have a sit-down with them, we want to speak to them about the issues in our community. We have some solutions and we want them to listen to our solutions.”
One of the purposes of the protest was to bring awareness of gun violence to the powers that be. My question is why didn’t they schedule a meeting with the Superintendent for a talk instead of having him march with them? The mayor of Chicago Emanuel Rahm also seemed supportive of the protest because he responded to the governor of Illinois Bruce Rauner dismissive tweet against the march with his own tweet saying: “It was a peaceful protest. Delete your account.”