The June 7 Newtown Congregational Church worship service closed with a Franciscan Benediction. Reverend Matt Crebbin, the church’s senior pastor, offered the following:

“May God bless you with discomfort at easy answers, half truths, and superficial relationships, so that you may live deep within your heart.

“May God bless you with anger at injustice, oppression, and exploitation, so that you may work for justice, freedom, and peace.

“May God bless you with tears to shed for those who suffer pain, rejection, starvation, disease, or war, so that you may reach out your hand and comfort them, and assist in turning their sorrow and pain into joy.

“May God bless you with just enough foolishness to believe that you can make a difference in this world, so that you can join with others who are also foolish enough to believe that we can change this world, that we can do what others claim cannot be done.”

A few hours later, up to 1,500 people who still believe that social injustice can become something of the past gathered at the Main Street flagpole “to take a knee for George Floyd for 8 minutes and 46 seconds of silence,” according to a flier that circulated over the weekend ahead of the event that began at 2:30 pm, Sunday afternoon.

Many who converged on the flagpole had already been on Main Street for up to 30 minutes earlier. A different event in front of Edmond Town Hall had started at 2 pm.

The two peaceful rallies converged into one at the flagpole, and then the full group eventually ended up in the front parking lot of the Newtown Police Department before dispersing.

Both events were publicized as peaceful gatherings, although it was unclear from fliers and online posts who organizers were for either.

The events were the first in town to recognize the death in May of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minn. The 46-year-old Floyd, a black man, was on the ground, face down when a white police officer knelt on his neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds. The compression led to Floyd suffocating and then dying.

The May 25 incident has spurred protests, rallies, and even riots across the country and around the world. The two events planned for Newtown were filled with voices of reason, as well as angry voices.

The first gathering began in front of Edmond Town Hall at 2 pm. Bearing signs that said Enough Is Enough, Black Lives Matter and Say Their Names, among others, the crowd also began chants that continued off and on for the next 90-minutes.

Male and female voices took turns leading the chants. “Say his name!” “Say her name” (referring to Breonna Taylor, who died in Louisville, Ky., in March, at the hands of police), and “No justice, no peace” were among the chants repeated by those in the crowd, which moved from the building at 45 Main Street to the historic flagpole in the middle of the Main Street-Church Hill Road-West Street intersection around 2:30.

Newtown resident Jim Allyn, who was part of the group involved in organizing the second event, had planned for that gathering to last approximately 20 minutes. He had asked those planning to attend to kneel for 8 minutes, 46 seconds. The national anthem was also going to be sung, but that part of the plan was dropped late Saturday evening, Allyn later told The Newtown Bee.

Main Street was closed between its intersections with Hanover Road and Sugar Street during the two rallies. When the crowd — which Newtown police estimated at between 1,000 and 1,500 people strong — knelt at the flagpole, the chanting crowd fell silent.

Only the sound of the whipping flag at the top of the flagpole, the metal clip on the ropes holding the 20- by 30-foot flag on the pole, and rustling leaves on trees in front of Newtown Meeting House could be heard for a few minutes.

Once the actions at the flagpole were completed, the group moved again, this time south to the police department. The crowd again chanted while making the 600-yard trek, and then filled the parking lot in front of the town building upon arrival. As chanting continued, Police Chief James Viadero spoke to the group.

Standing with a few uniformed officers behind him, Viadero told the crowd that he and his department hear them, and they stand with them.

“We all saw the video that brought you here today, and we were disgusted by it,” he said.

Many in the crowd challenged the police chief to say “Black Lives Matter.” They repeated the chant, voices rising in anger, before one young black man, Jason Wilson, stepped toward Viadero, then held his hands up to the crowd, asking for quiet.

“Stop!” he said. “What are we really here to do? I’m really asking you: What are we here to do?”

“Make change,” came the response from at least one person.

“We want to make change, right?” Wilson said. “Here’s the thing: We don’t know them. They don’t know us. We could have come here with malicious intent, and they could’ve too, but they didn’t. They supported us on the street.

“Just because we’re here to fight against a system that’s broken does not mean we have to turn on each other,” he continued. “We couldn’t even be quiet for 8 minutes and 46 seconds. That’s sad. We fought too hard to have people not respect each other. We have to listen to each other. We can’t keep yelling at each other.

“They helped us today,” Wilson said. “Who here really believes — I really want you to ask yourself — who here believes we can really make a difference?”

Loud applause and cheers were the responses he was again given. Wilson told the group that there are good people within the system many want dismantled. There are people within that system, he said, who also want change.

“Just because we see these cops standing here doesn’t mean they’re the enemy,” said Wilson. He told those standing before him that he, too, has been the victim of social injustice all his life. He has been called names, and his house was broken into. He was locked into the system, he said, for five years.

“I really learned about systematic oppression then,” he said.

“People, we need to do better,” he continued. “This has been going on too long.”

Wilson then turned and shook hands with Viadero, which was again greeted with applause and cheers. While some taunted the police officers, and even the chief, one man was heard echoing Wilson’s words of just a few minutes earlier.

“Support the police in this town,” he said. “Change needs to be made, but this is not us versus them.”

Others clearly disagreed. One woman asked about racial profiling, another chastised the police chief when he looked at his cell phone.

The gathering continued for another 30-plus minutes, with a few people making statements. Some in the crowd challenged each other. Most remained respectful of the opinions being shared.

Gabby Martin was one of three young adults to speak to the crowd. She said it is time to hold “Newtown High School accountable, and other Newtown schools accountable too. Racial conversation needs to be required now.

“We need to teach the children of today that this is not OK, and that what is OK is change,” she added. “It is OK to change your mind. Your parents don’t agree with you? That is OK!”

Martin also mentioned that there are no black faculty members at Newtown High School.

“There is no black experience,” she said. “We’re learning from white teachers. Our textbooks are from the white perspective.”

One young woman from the crowd added that the only history course at NHS that is required for graduation is European History.

“That needs to change, too!” she yelled, to additional applause.

Danielle Johnson told the young adults in the crowd to hold their friends accountable.

“I know a lot of people are posting things on Instagram, saying they’re trying to make change,” she said. “But have conversations with your friends. Talk to your friends, educate your friends when they’re acting wrong.”

She also encouraged teachers to take students to task if they are heard saying things that are clearly wrong.

“Say something. You’re a teacher, talk to your students,” she said. “Teach them about everything, not just your subject but about racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia.”

Organizers Speak

Monday morning, The Newtown Bee heard from high school student Carly Decker, who said she and her bother Silas had organized Sunday’s 2 pm gathering, which she deemed a peaceful protect.

“We were protesting the recent events happening in America, such as George Floyd and Breonna Taylor’s murder by police, as well as the fight against institutionalized racism,” she said via e-mail.

Edmond Town Hall was selected, she said, because she wanted a location “somewhere with plenty of people to see us to help spread awareness and show our support.”

While an event of the level of the George Floyd case has not happened in Newtown, Decker felt it was important to have a peaceful protest here “because Newtown is not as diverse as some other places, so I wanted to make sure we didn’t just turn a blind eye to the issues the black community faces.”

Echoing a comment made by one of the young adults Sunday afternoon, Decker said she wanted to address “our white privilege, and using that privilege for good.”

She also felt it was important that Newtown showed support for the cause. Holding up traffic for 30 minutes, as the event was originally planned for — or even the 90-plus minutes the two events merged into — is the point of a protest, she said.

“It’s supposed to make you stop and think and it’s supposed to be a slight inconvenience for people driving by,” she said. Before Main Street traffic was detoured to the side streets, she noted, “we were met with cars beeping or waving as they drove by to show their support.”

Jim Allyn also responded to a request for additional information the morning after the gatherings. On Wednesday afternoon he issued a statement co-signed by Reverend Matthew Crebbin, Cadence Carroll, Danielle Lozer, “and other concerned Newtown citizens, including help from Christine Wilford.”

The flagpole was the center of that group’s event, the statement said, because “its location serves to remind us that at a critical crossroads, if we are to live up to the ideas embodied in the flag, we must center out commitment around it.”

The organizers were overwhelmed, they said, “that so many of our neighbors were willing to come out to express their commitment to be part of the change.” The event sprang from a conversation held on Saturday, they said.

Newtown, the group said, “has known the challenge of heartache, anger, and sorrow. We have also known the power of compassion that has assisted us on our journey through grief and trauma.

“Many of us have learned from other communities — particularly communities of color — who have offered us support and care,” they said.

Saying civil disobedience “is as old as America itself,” and “one we keep alive through exercise,” the group felt shutting down Main Street fit right in with its need to deliver their message.

“We believe that the issue of racial bias and systemic racism, which is at the heart of this current moment, is counterproductive to the ideals of our nation. Though we may have inconvenienced some of our neighbors for a few minutes on a Sunday afternoon” by having a section of Main Street closed for nearly 90 minutes, “imagine the inconvenience of many of our fellow citizens who have suffered grief and oppression for years.

“We believe that this action was quite productive in stimulating the conversation our town and the country needs to have.”

This is an expanded version of a story originally posted online Sunday, June 7, 2020.