WILMER PARK — Navigating around pockets of snow still on the frozen ground from last week’s winter storm and dodging raindrops, about 100 people walked from Memorial Park on High Street to Wilmer Park on Saturday in the People’s March in Chestertown, held in solidarity with the National People’s March in Washington and other marches in communities across the country.
Participants carried signs, some of them handmade, calling for protection of families, education, immigrants, the LGBTQ community, the environment, women’s reproductive rights, civil rights and other causes.
The Kent County Democratic Central Committee and the Democratic Club of Kent County sponsored the local event, held two days before the inauguration of Republican President-elect Donald Trump.
The event was promoted as being nonpartisan, and the tone was mostly respectful and restrained.
It was a peaceful protest, the local statement about a national day of action “to demonstrate the collective strength, the persistence of hope, and the diverse concerns of people who hold our democracy dear,” according to a news release.
As Monday, Jan. 20 also is the federal observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the life and legacy of the slain social rights activist was celebrated during the People’s March in Chestertown.
Gathered under the gazebo in Wilmer Park, the group sang “We Shall Overcome,” the unofficial anthem of the civil rights movement.
Melvin Rapelyea, chairman of the Kent County Democratic Central Committee, recited in its entirety King’s historic “I Have a Dream” speech delivered on Aug. 28, 1963 on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington.
Other speakers quoted Frederick Douglass, a Talbot County native born into slavery who spent his life fighting for justice and equality; Maryland native Thurgood Marshall, the first Black justice on the U.S. Supreme Court; Barbara Jordan, the first Black woman elected to the Texas Senate in 1966; former first lady Eleanor Roosevelt, who championed many social causes and was an ardent supporter of Martin Luther King Jr.; and former Georgia governor and U.S. President Jimmy Carter, whose life’s work was an unwavering commitment to peace, human rights and democracy.
Among the speakers was Kent County High School sophomore Eamon Lindsay.
The People’s March in Chestertown drew participants from throughout Kent County and parts of Queen Anne’s County.
— Photos by Trish McGee
