What was the March on Statesboro?

It took place Monday night. Roughly 100 Georgia Southern University students gathered at the Russell Union Rotunda, where they took four minutes of silence in honor of Michael Brown, the black 18-year-old who was killed during an encounter with a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri.

Brown's name and memory were etched throughout the speeches at the Rotunda, the march down South Main Street to the Bulloch Courthouse, and the speeches, poems, spoken-word pieces and raps on the courthouse steps.

Since a grand jury last week declined to issue an indictment against Darren Wilson, who resigned from his position as a Ferguson police officer over the weekend, protests - many peaceful, some that turned violent - have erupted across the nation.

The March on Statesboro had the peaceful parts of those protests and the anger, but nothing approaching violence.
And the march was not just about Michael Brown, its organizers said.

"As a result of the events that have been happening in the last couple of weeks and months, we started to come together and say, ‘There is something we have to do,'" James "Major" Woodall, a junior political science major at Georgia Southern from Riverdale, told reporters after the march and rally. "We have to bring our community together, because there's a lot of people that are hurting, a lot of people that are frustrated and a lot of people that are angry.

"As a leader, I felt it was a call upon my life to make sure that we find a way for our people to channel that anger and move us forward," he continued. "I believe this was a step in the right direction."

At the Rotunda, Woodall called on all who were taking part in the march to be peaceful - no walking in the street, no damage to buildings, no violence against people. The protesters were true to all of those calls.
Various student groups at Georgia Southern came together for the march. Woodall, the president of the campus chapter of the NAACP, served as the emcee.

During the march, a number of chants could be heard up and down South Main Street: "No justice! No peace!" "I am Mike Brown!" "Hands up! Don't shoot!" These are hallmarks of the Ferguson-inspired protests across the nation in the wake of the grand jury's decision.

But the speakers at the rally on the courthouse steps said the gathering had to be about more than just reacting to Ferguson. Woodall and others called this a "first step." They called on the students to vote and make their voices truly heard by those in power.

Several speakers also emphasized that it's not just about black rights, but rights for all, no matter their race.
Jonathan McCollar, a former mayoral candidate and longtime community servant, expressed confidence that the best days of the United States are yet to come.

"We must start with the sisters and brothers among us," McCollar told the crowd. "See, it doesn't matter the hue of your skin. It doesn't matter the texture of your hair. What matters is the spirit that God put into your body that shows his genius of creation."

The genius of God's creation, McCollar said, is the diversity of the people: "How boring it would be if we were all the same," he said.

"See, Michael Brown's death was not a horror for the black community," McCollar said. "Michael's Brown's death was a horror for the nation. And the reason why it was a horror for the nation is because it peeled back an ugly wound that had never healed."

In the end, however, the March on Statesboro was "not about Mike Brown," Woodall said. "It's about us taking action, unifying our people in this great state, this great nation, and improving the world."

How does that happen?

Woodall told reporters that student leaders plan to contact the leaders of the community - the city of Statesboro and Bulloch County, to start - in hopes of setting up a dialogue about how to move forward and make sure everyone has an equal opportunity at living a productive life.

Jason Wermers may be reached at (912) 489-9431.