COLUMBIA, S.C. — Hundreds of South Carolina teachers marched for Black Lives Matter Saturday.
Protests have been ongoing in Columbia and around the world since the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
The ‘I Can’t Breathe’ movement here in Columbia has drawn hundreds of people out daily.
Saturday, a group of advocates and teachers gathered to protest together.
SC teacher Adrienne Jennings says, "As a teacher, we can help make a difference and it is a movement, not just a moment so any way I’m able to help out and support. That’s why I’m here today.”
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Co-founder of Columbia’s 'I Can’t Breathe' movement Rye Martinez says she knew South Carolina’s teachers would show up once called, “Because of everything that was going on at first in the United States with the rioting and everything I know teachers probably would not have wanted to be apart of that. So we wanted to make sure that they had their own stance to be apart of it so that’s why we organized this protest today for them.”
“I want to be an active part in making sure that all of my students have the same opportunities that I had," says special education teacher Kelsey Harris, "I try very very hard to recognize my own bias and my own privilege when I’m working with my kids but that doesn’t mean that they get it throughout the rest of the school and the rest of their education. And I work with students with disabilities so they’re twice as likely to be affected by this kind of stuff because they don’t always understand what’s being said to them the first time it’s said to them.”
Others walked alongside them amplifying the call for a society where all are treated as equals.
“It’s wonderful to see people of so many different colors, ages, nationalities," says Lynn Long, "its time for change and it looks like now that everybody’s involved, I think that we can finally get there."
It has been a full two weeks since protests began in Columbia and they will continue Sunday with the Million Man March starting at 11 a.m. at MLK Park near Five Points.