Volume 28 Issue 13 June 23, 2020
Inside: Check Out The New Lima!
See pages 32-33!
Protests Hit Close To Home For Some Local leaders find themselves hopeful for change as marches, protests and urban unrest facilitate a debate.
By JOHN C. COTEY john@ntneighborhoodnews.com State Representative Fentrice Driskell says she has lived with racism her entire life, but not nearly as long as her parents Joel and Terry did While there weren’t any protests in New Tampa, just a few miles up Bruce B. Downs Blvd. growing up the segregated south. in Wesley Chapel, a hundred or so people gathered to make their voices heard. However, as the country begins (Photo courtesy of Susan Boyle) to recover from the rage and retribusee the realization of the dream that about race in America. tion of weeks of protests and marches Martin Luther King was fighting for.” “This has gotten everyone’s atfollowing the death of George Floyd While none of the local protests tention,” Driskell says. “I think this while in police custody on May 25, and marches took place in New Tam- is the greatest chance that we’ve had it is her parents’ optimism that fills pa, there was one a few miles north since the Civil Rights movement (of Driskell, the State Rep. for District outside of the Shops at Wiregrass, as the 1960s) to make some positive 63, which includes New Tampa, with well as a few miles to the south, in the changes.” high expectations for the future. University of South Florida area along This time, she says, it feels differ*** ent. It feels lasting. It feels productive. E. Fowler Ave. What started as a visceral reacThe rain poured down on Susan “The hope and optimism they tion to the death of Floyd beneath the Boyle and her daughter Emma on feel is wonderful,” Rep. Driskell says knee of a Minneapolis police officer June 6, but it did not deter them of her parents. “They are so excited as they stood at the intersection of that in their lifetime, they may actually has grown into a larger conversation
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S.R. 56 and Bruce B. Downs Blvd. in Wesley Chapel, taking part in their first-ever protest together on June 6. Like many in this country, Susan, a Meadow Pointe resident, was moved by the images on television — the death of Floyd, the massive crowds that protested his death — and felt like she wanted to do something. “It was heartbreaking seeing Mr. Floyd killed on TV while I watched,” Susan said. “I wanted to be part of the group saying ‘Enough is enough.’” So, she and Emma, a junior at Wiregrass Ranch High, stood in the rain. They sang songs of protest. They moved from corner to corner at the intersection, along with 100 or so others, many waving homemade signs, others just waving their hands, and with everyone chanting various songs and slogans. She said the experience was overwhelmingly positive from passersby. One driver, stopped at a red light, even reached out to hand her an umbrella before speeding off. The unpleasant weather did little to dampen their enthusiasm. Susan is like many people in this See “Protests” on page 4.
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