Jessica Cejnar / Sunday, Aug. 9, 2020 @ 4:20 p.m.
Following Billboard Vandalism, BLM Demonstrators Take Rally to Harbor, Plan Further Action
Demonstrators rally against racial injustice Sunday at the Crescent City Harbor after a California Endowment billboard was defaced. Photo: Jessica Cejnar
Previously:
• Billboard Complaints Reach Harbor District
• Protesters Speak Out Against Roger Gitlin Following 'Racist Bigoted' Facebook Posts
Since the community’s first Black Lives Matter demonstration a few days after George Floyd’s death, Del Norte County resident Mary Niski strove to keep the conversation going.
Each week Niski has urged others to bring their signs to the Del Norte County Fairgrounds, though, she said, the number of participants has decreased in the past few weeks. On Sunday, after unknown vandals defaced a California Endowment billboard with the phrase “Black Lives Matter,” Niski moved the protest to the Crescent City Harbor.
About 30 other Del Norters joined her.
“We need to stand in solidarity with all people of color,” Niski told the Wild Rivers Outpost. “(The billboard) has reignited the conversation. Since the first rally there’s been very little negative response.”
Two billboards paid for by the California Endowment urging people to wear masks to stop the spread of COVID-19 have stirred controversy in Crescent City over the past two weeks. On July 25, Del Norte County Supervisor Roger Gitlin took to Facebook to express his displeasure with the billboards, pointing out that “any reference to European-American inclusion” is missing.
Gitlin’s comments prompted a protest outside the Flynn Center before the Board of Supervisors meeting on July 28 with demonstrators accusing him of fomenting bigotry and racism.
Complaints about the billboard also reached the Crescent City Harbor District, with commissioners on Tuesday considering asking the California Endowment to remove the advertisement.
At the meeting, Commissioner Carol White said she was concerned that the billboard’s “Black Lives Matter” message would prompt criminal behavior.
“There have been people threatening to get out there and spray paint (the billboard),” she said. “It didn’t tick off one group of people. There’s quite a few different organizations that are not happy about it being up there.”
On Sunday, though the protesters drew a few shouts of “All Lives Matter,” most people honked their horns in solidarity.
One demonstrator, Denise Doyle-Schnacker, said she found out that the California Endowment billboard was defaced on Friday afternoon. She said she made a police report, sending them screen shots from posts on Facebook.
Doyle-Schnacker, who helped organize the July 28 rally in front of the Flynn Center, said she has been working with True North Organizing Network and a handful of youth to brainstorm action beyond demonstrating.
The youth were inspired largely because of opposition to the billboard, Doyle-Schnacker said.
“The youth who showed up at the protest at the Board of Supervisors, they wanted to know what’s next,” she said, adding that she also wants to get youth to talk to each other. “‘How do you feel about living in a community that’s willing to vandalize to use their voice?’”
Doyle-Schnacker said she’s also been communicating with people she doesn’t see very often about the recent controversy regarding George Floyd and Black Lives Matter. What’s really missing in Del Norte County, she said, is conversation.
“There are a lot of misconceptions about what each of us believe,” Doyle-Schnacker said. “Conversation has been missing in the community for a long time. We need conversation.”
From left to right, Mary Niski, Denise Doyle-Schnacker and John Mertes participate in a Black Lives Matter rally at the Crescent City Harbor on Sunday. Photo: Jessica Cejnar
Amy Campbell-Blair, Del Norte organizer for True North, said there are plans to take further action in addition to holding rallies, though they’re still being discussed.
Yurok tribal member Lavina Mattz Bowers, who brought her family to the harbor to stand in solidarity with people of color, pointed out that if video of police kneeling on a white person who said he couldn’t breathe was made public, she would be protesting for that person just the same.
“I don’t know why people can’t see that,” she said.
The California Endowment is a private health foundation created in 1996 when Blue Cross of California acquired WellPoint Health Networks. The Endowment has more than $3 billion in assets and has funded the $1 billion Building Healthy Communities Initiative, which is in 14 California communities including Del Norte County.
Building Healthy Communities has been involved in candidate forums, literacy symposiums and has supported organizations like First 5 Del Norte and the Community Food Council.
The California Endowment has also granted Crescent City $9,000 to complete a $500,000 Community Development Block Grant application for a business loan program.
John Mertes not only held a “BLM” sign aloft in front of the harbor, he also wore his Vietnam veteran cap. He said his fight for freedom and equality continues about 50 years later.
“In 1776 we declared ‘All men are created equal,’” Mertes said, quoting the Declaration of Independence. “Back then, it was a few rich white men. Now we need to make it ‘all people are created equal.’”
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