Friend speaks at BLM rally
Co-clerk of Quakers in Criminal Justice moved to share her experience as prison tutor
A Quaker who has a long history of working in criminal justice spoke out at a Black Lives Matter (BLM) rally in Malvern this month.
Melanie Jameson, co-clerk of Quakers in Criminal Justice, told the Friend that around 370 people came to the protest on 7 June where she felt moved to talk about her experience of being a prison tutor in rural Suffolk in the mid-1980s, where half of the population was black.
She said that, at the protest: ‘As elsewhere, we knelt on the ground for the time George Floyd had a knee on his neck (8 minutes 46 seconds, I think). Names and circumstances of some black men who have died in police custody in England over the years were read out later.’
Meanwhile, a sixteen-year-old Young Friend, Abi Rafferty, of Almeley Meeting, created a poster to support BLM (see below). The artwork has been displayed in the local community bus shelter.
Quakers also took part in a ‘Black Lives Matter: Learning for Quakers’ workshop on 24 June, to consider: the current movement in the US and UK; what whiteness and white supremacy are; and how we can act for racial justice.
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