Today American Friemds Service Committee is excited to provide support to Atlanta-based grassroots organization, The CommUNITY, as they lead a march from
Atlanta, GA to Valdosta, GA, to raise awareness in the case of Kendrick
Johnson. Johnson was found dead on January 11, 2013 in the gymnasium of
Lowndes High School in Valdosta, amidst now notoriously questionable
circumstances. Johnson, 17 at the time, was a junior at Lowndes High.
Marchers will
be walking 17 miles per day, to symbolize Kendrick Johnson’s age when he passed,
with shuttles assisting progress by night, and seek to arrive in Valdosta early
on the afternoon of Monday, April 6th.
Organizers from The CommUNITY will be delivering a letter
to authorities at Lowndes High School, requesting a moment of silence for
Johnson (something which has not occurred to date), at the school’s graduation
on May 23rd, as well as an honorary diploma for Johnson, who would
have graduated this year. They are asking this diploma be given to his
sister, Kenyetta Johnson, who was denied the opportunity to walk the stage at
her graduation last spring, due to the controversy surrounding her brother’s
case.
Representatives from a variety of activist groups and
churches will be in attendance at the march’s launch, and have offered
financial and logistical support to marchers.
Many of the supporting groups, and The CommUNITY, have
been involved in recent activism around civil rights and police shootings in
Georgia, and see a direct tie-in to the Johnson case: “We march 17 miles a day,
marking the years he lived. We march in remembrance of ALL lives lost, and all
lives we advocate to save. We march to protect those that fight every day to
live,” said Queen K, of The CommUNITY.
Guest Writer,
Jim Chambers
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