Crowd of 200 support Juneteenth protest in Roseville

Two-hundred protesters gathered at the sunbaked intersection of East Roseville Parkway and Galleria Boulevard in Roseville on June 19 to honor Juneteenth in support of the Black Lives Matter movement. June 19, Juneteenth, marks the day that all slaves were freed in the United States in 1865, two years after the Emancipation Proclamation was adopted, when Union Army Gen. Gordon Granger announced the federal order in Galveston, Texas. According to historical reports, the Union Army's lack of presence in Texas made it hard to enforce the new law so many slave owners ignored emancipating their slaves. The June 19 protest was organized by Roseville residents Natallie Montgomery and Kosy Nnaji, who used social media to notify others about their protest. "It was because I saw how many protests were going on in the world in general and I thought it would be better if Roseville could use that too, because this place could use a little bit of furthering," Nnaji said. The event followed a whole week of protests that took place in Royer Park and the area around it by a different group of Black Lives Matter and I am Sac protesters. Montgomery and Nnaji said they choose this location instead for the amount of traffic and exposure it provides. "We picked this intersection because it is more known and so many cars pass by. We just figured we could get more attention and cross the intersection to march," Montgomery said. The protest lasted from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and thousands of cars drove through the intersection with the majority of drivers showing support for the movement. A few drivers and passengers yelled "All Lives Matter,""White Power" or gave protesters the middle finger as they drove through. When the protest started, about four protesters were in front of the large water feature sign of The Fountains. Less than an hour later, groups of protesters were at all sides of the intersection. At the peak time between noon and 1:15 p.m., at least 200 protesters covered the four corners of the intersection waiving signs, chanting, playing music and dancing. The group of protesters was made up of teenagers to those in their 50s and 60 and of all races and genders. The signs were as diverse as the protesters. Some signs were three feet tall and others were as small as printer paper and as simple as writing "Black Lives Matter" with a Sharpie pen on cardboard to color-coded and long-worded signs. "It just shows how much change has come because it used to just be African Americans," Montgomery said. "It surprises me that we have come collectively so far that people of different diversities are all in unity and we are all fighting against this injustice together." The large group of protesters used the crosswalks around the intersection to march and used their crossing time to take a knee in front of the waiting traffic. "I'm just glad that people were able to come out and show their support because it means a lot that so many people feel the need to protest and fight for change, because it seems like in Roseville, no one would really protest," Nnaji said. One of those 200 protesters was Noah Parker from Antelope, who heard about the protest through Instagram and "felt encouraged that the movement was spreading outside of Sacramento" and wanted to show his support. "I think it is important that we are out here raising our voice and showing people that this is not something that is easy to ignore," Parker said. While giving his voice to the movement, Parker also wanted to make sure that everyone understood the story behind the names that they were chanting and remembering during these protests. For those driving by, though, the mission "was to plant the names in their head and get passerbys curious," Parker said. "So we are coming out here so we have a chance to say the name, George Floyd, because we hope that when you hear that name and you go home and it is ringing in your ear, you look it up and you see that is an ongoing issue," Parker said. Floyd, a black man, died May 25 while in police custody in Minneapolis after he allegedly paid for cigarettes at a deli with a counterfeit $20. The four police officers who took part were all fired by the Minneapolis Police Department on May 26 and arrested. Fired officers J. Alexander Kueng, Thomas Lane and Tou Thao have been charged with aiding and abetting both second-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. Fired officer Derek Chauvin has been charged with second-degree murder, third degree-murder and second-degree manslaughter. After the success that they had with this protest, Nnaji and Montgomery said, they will begin working to put another one together in Roseville but do not yet have a date.