Broad Street march: 80 brave rain to honor S.C. victims

Chanting "black lives matter" and the names of the victims of the fatal shootings in Charleston, S.C., about 80 protesters braved the wind and rain Saturday in a two-mile march along Broad Street.

After the Rev. Mark Tyler of Philadelphia's Mother Bethel A.M.E. led a prayer for the nine victims, the group walked in the southbound lanes from Broad and Erie to Cecil B. Moore Avenue under a police escort as traffic crept behind.

The marchers carried nine posters with photographs of the victims, but the demonstration went beyond the June 17 incident at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in downtown Charleston.

The protesters condemned the deaths of black people at the hands of police and said the South Carolina tragedy was a symptom of racism.

"South Carolina was not an isolated incident," Erica Mines, 37, a member of the coalition that organized the march, told protesters at a rally beforehand.

When protesters assumed their positions to march, blocking traffic, she took to a megaphone to lead the group in chants of "Justice for the nine in Charleston" and "No justice, no peace, no racist police."

And as they made their way down Broad Street through the rain, the marchers declared, "Black lives matter," a chant that has become a battle cry in protests since the deaths by police of two unarmed black men, Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., and Eric Garner in Staten Island, N.Y., last year.

One participant held a sign demanding justice for Brandon Tate-Brown, the black man who was shot and killed by a Philadelphia police officer in December. The District Attorney's Office cleared the officer, but Tate-Brown's mother, Tanya Brown-Dickerson, is suing the city and calling for officials to reopen the investigation into her son's death.

Berthienna Ogden, 54, of Overbrook, marched at the front of the group, holding a poster with the face of Charleston shooting victim Susie Jackson.

Ogden came to the march with her 14-year-old daughter, Genevieve Green, representing her church and remembering racial tensions when she grew up in Philadelphia in the 1960s and 1970s.

Said Ogden, "It's a shame that we're still struggling now."

215-854-2819@MadelineRConway