After leading chants of “No justice, no peace” and “Trump leave town,” the Rev. Mareo Johnson urged protesters at a local event Saturday in Greenwood to stay away from the BOK Center, where the president was about to hold a campaign rally Saturday evening.
Marching toward the arena would do nothing to disrupt Donald Trump’s speech, said Johnson, the founder of the Tulsa chapter of Black Lives Matter.
“I see no purpose in that,” he said during a protest rally at John Hope Franklin Reconciliation Park. “I see purpose in what we are doing here.”
After Johnson’s brief speech, in which he condemned Trump’s choice to make Tulsa the first stop on the summer campaign trail, the crowd listened to music and poetry while sitting under shade trees.
He wasn’t worried about violent protests, Johnson said.
People are also reading…
“Not right here I’m not,” he said. “We’re here to have fellowship together.”
Later, the crowd took a 40-minute march through the Arts District and Greenwood while chanting “Black lives matter” and “no justice, no peace.”
The protesters, stretching about two city blocks long, came within sight of the BOK Center but didn’t approach it.
