Marchers for unity celebrate Biloxi as beacon on Coast. ‘We’ve got a long way to go.’

A few hundred people walked through the streets of downtown Biloxi Saturday morning as part of a Unity March & Prayer event against racism and gun violence.

The march came at the end of a week in which Gulfport and Bay St. Louis announced they will no longer fly the 1894 state flag with the Confederate emblem, and pressure mounted on the state legislature to consider changing the flag. Biloxi, meanwhile, took down the flag in 2017. Speakers and marchers at the Unity event said they were proud to consider their city a leader in the fight for racial justice across Mississippi.

“We’ve come a long way,” said Ward 2 Councilman Felix Gines, addressing the group when they gathered at the steps of City Hall. “We’ve got a long way to go.”

As the group left the Town Green and turned onto Main Street, a slight breeze offered some relief from the nearly 90-degree heat. Speaking at City Hall later, Police Chief John Miller joked that the breeze was a sign.

“That was God telling us we were heading in the right direction,” Miller said.

The marchers, carrying signs that read “Too many is more than enough,” “Black Lives Matter,” and “The Best Apology is Changed Behavior,” continued down Main Street. Apart from the occasional chant of “No justice, no peace,” they were mostly quiet as they walked through downtown streets.

Outside City Hall, Pastor Jakavious Pickett of Praise Temple Biloxi addressed the crowd.

“Why are we here?” he asked.

He recited dates in American history: 1619, when the first enslaved Africans arrived in what would become the United States. 1776, when the United States declared independence from Great Britain. 1863, when President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation.

“One-hundred and fifty-five years later, we’re fighting a war that should have been over a long time ago,” Pickett said.

Pickett pointed out that the day before, the United States Air Force announced JoAnne Bass as its new Chief Master Sergeant. She will become the first woman, as well as the first Asian-American, to serve in such a role.

“And she currently resides in the City of Biloxi, by way of Keesler Air Force Base,” Pickett said.

Mayor Andrew “Fofo” Gilich, who made the decision to remove the flag in 2017, also spoke to the gathering. After the speeches, pastors led prayers and two singers performed worship songs.

Stafinée Spears-Echols, 48, came to the demonstration with three of her five children, ages 14, 11 and 10. They had been watching the news as demonstrations spread across the country to protest the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police. She wanted them to have the opportunity to experience a protest for themselves and learn how they could join others to make ad difference.

“They read about it, see it, but it’s different to actually be here,” she said.

Spears-Echols said she agreed that Biloxi is progressive compared to the rest of the state, “but not progressive enough.” As a mother, she worries about her three sons, who are Black, and how the police might treat them.

The Biloxi protest, like others around the country, struck her as a sign of change. The crowd was racially mixed, a sign that more white people are paying attention to racial injustice.

“We’re a society that does what’s acceptable,” she said. “Now the door has been opened.”

‘It all ties in’

After the march, many of the demonstrators headed to John Henry Beck Park in East Biloxi for the city’s Juneteenth celebration. Kids played on an inflatable water slide and ate snoballs and popcorn. Adults chatted at picnic tables under the pavilion.

Le’Roy C. Carney, 71, was eating a hot dog and potato chips and reflecting on the change he has seen in Biloxi since he first started participating in the Civil Rights movement 60 years ago. Carney joined the wade-in protests to desegregate the Biloxi beaches in the 1960s. One protest ended with him and other demonstrators hauled away from the beach in an 18-wheeler truck.

Now, he feels the city’s leadership and police are generally responsive to the concerns of Black Biloxians, though he would like to see more Black Americans and other people of color in elected office and positions of power. And this Juneteenth, he sees the national protests against racism as an important shift.

“This is what has been absent from all of these discussions — you have those who see injustice and sit on the sidelines, pretend racism does not exist,” Carney said.

At another pavilion, the NAACP passed out membership applications, and clipboards offered voter registration forms.

Anthony Mitchell, president of the Second Liners Mardi Gras Club, which co-hosted the Juneteenth celebration, read a proclamation from the City of Biloxi recognizing Juneteenth.

Gordon Jackson, political action committee chair of the Biloxi NAACP, said the celebration of Juneteenth and the calls for change issued by the marchers went hand in hand.

“It all ties in with Civil Rights and celebrating our freedom,” Jackson said as he looked towards children climbing on the playground and inflatable water slide. “We always have to remind ourselves that our ancestors made some huge sacrifices so our kids could play freely.”

This story was originally published June 20, 2020 at 1:59 PM.