DuPage AME Church Takes it to the Streets
With shouts of “This is what democracy looks like!” “This is what America looks like!” “Say his name, George Floyd! Say her name, Sandy Bland!” Pastor James F. Miller challenged DuPage AME Church to the vision of a true, peaceful demonstration. The Rev. Connie Dickerson and the Rev. TiShaunda McPherson, two ministers in the Church’s youth department, took the challenge.
On Saturday, June 20, the church where Sandy Bland was raised and actively served, met in the church parking lot and prayed. The crowd of church members swelled with community residents including the president of Lisle Chamber of Commerce, Lisle’s Mayor, several city councilpersons, Lisle’s top four police officers including the Chief of Police, and neighbors who made signs and joined along the 1.7-mile route to the Village Hall. Given the march was announced, DuPage County is only 3% African American, and several racial events occurred in recent days, the Lisle demonstration was opposite of what had been on the news and what occurred in neighboring suburbs.
DuPage AME Church has served the community with over one million pounds of food and has raised community values with its award-winning architecture. It is a high-value resident, contributing hundreds of thousands of dollars in business annually to the community.
Along the parade route, very few police were visible and no counter-protesters of any kind gathered. As we marched downtown, major streets and roads were blocked in all directions to ensure the safety of the demonstrators. The demonstration was supported with horns from cars and the businesses along the route offered cold water and rest stops, although some were boarded.
When the procession arrived at the Village Hall, in new apartment buildings with primarily conservative, Republican residents, the demonstration chants changed and bull horns boomed, “No justice, no peace!” In the downtown of Lisle, the Village accommodated the demonstration with a podium and microphone. The residents, demonstrators, officials, and onlookers gathered as our youth spoke. Kiersten Rasberry (age 19 attending Princeton University), Linwood Johnson, Jr. (age 18), Tre’ Spencer (age 16), Xavier Banks (age 18 attending Jackson State University), and Camille Armstrong (age 10) all shared from their individual experience.
We kneeled for eight minutes and 46 seconds and nearly the entire crowd, 50 percent ow which were white, kneeled with us. Pastor Miller made remarks and the demonstration left the Village Hall and marched, chanted, and sang back to the hallowed ground of the church. It was a proud moment for DuPage AME Church, the largest African American Church in DuPage County, to tell our community, “This is what democracy looks like!”
