“We are the children, the powerful powerful children. Here to tell you, black lives matter!” Hundreds of children sang as they marched down the neighborhood sidewalks in Kirkwood with their parents on Saturday.
Their voices may not have been as deep or as tall as other protesters, but their passion and energy were just as strong, thanks to the leadership of 8-year-old Nolan Davis, who organized the march.
“I am concerned that black people like me will get hurt. Some skins are like chocolate. Some are like vanilla. Some are mixed like mine. But we are all people,” Nolan Davis said through a megaphone at first. of Saturday’s event.
“Although I am a child, it is important to speak my voice so that people can hear me and know that they can also share their voice, just like me.”
Nolan Davis had the idea to start his own protest after he and his mother went to a couple of others in the area.
“Right after that, he asked me if I could have my own march so that other people’s voices would be heard,” her mother, Kristin Davis, told CNN.
So the two created a flyer for their “March of the Lives of Black Children” and shared it on Facebook, asking families to meet at Kirkwood Park.
“We thought maybe 50 people would be there,” said Nolan Davis. “But there were about 700 people.”
Children of different races covered the sidewalks with chalk with phrases like “Stop Racism” and “Be Kind to Everyone”. They marched with signs in their hands that read, among other things, “Black Children’s Futures Matter.”
Nolan Davis led the way with his poster that read: “Children Can Make a Change.”
He is only 8 years old, but he has already had the “talk”
Despite being a boy in elementary school, Nolan Davis was already taught the ways he should act differently in society compared to his white friends, like playing with water pistols only in the backyard “because they didn’t He wants me to be wrong. ” for something else “or keeping the hood of your sweatshirt down, according to Kristin Davis.
As her white adoptive mother, Kristin Davis acknowledged that she would never understand the fear her black son and daughter, Caroline, 5, would feel as they get older. But she said she knew these conversations were necessary to keep them safe.
“We are preparing them for when they are older, taller and older. When they are no longer perceived as cute children,” he said.
Nolan Davis said those rules make him feel angry.
“I hate it,” he said. “I don’t like how blacks have to be scared when they just walk down the street or run.”
So he organized the protest on Saturday, he said. Hope it inspires more kids to do the same.
.
