Representatives of the Greater Long Branch Chapter of the NAACP and religious leaders march along Liberty Street during the March for Change held May 3. FRANK GALIPO Religious and community leaders hosted a solidarity march through Long Branch to show support for the “Black Lives Matter” demonstrations across the country.
The march began on Liberty Street at the Second Baptist Church of Long Branch, where marchers carrying signs and singing “We Shall Overcome” set off for City Hall.
Lorenzo “Bill” Dangler, president of the Greater Long Branch Chapter of the NAACP, said the march was a statement about the need to strengthen the community and continue working on relations between residents and police.
“Today is a day of support for all of the black lives that have been lost … at the hands of law enforcement,” Dangler said. “It’s also hopefully a day of healing. We need to save our communities.
The May 3 March for Change in Long Branch was organized by the Greater Long Branch Chapter of the NAACP and churches comprising the Long Branch Urban Ministerial Alliance. FRANK GALIPO “We want to send a spiritual message, but we have to send a message that we have a responsibility for our community, too. We need to help save our kids.” He added that police-community relations have improved in Long Branch in recent history.
“Relations are actually pretty good right now,” Dangler said. “We stay true to what we believe in, but we have some honest, open dialogue.”
Dangler said Public Safety Director Capt. Jason Roebuck’s “door is always open to everyone,” and recalled a March 14 public forum between community members and nearby police departments. “They all jumped at the chance to be a part of peace, to be a part of saving lives and open up the community’s lines of communication,” Dangler said.
When the roughly 60 marchers reached City Hall, Dangler, local clergy and seventerm Mayor Adam Schneider addressed the crowd.
Elder Caroline Bennett, president of the Long Branch Urban Ministerial Alliance, emphasized the need for communication.
“We are gathered here today not because it happened in Long Branch, but because before it happens in Long Branch, we want the ministers and churches and the people to get together,” Bennett said.
“If something should happen, we’ll be able to know one another, be able to reason with one another, be able to pray with one another, and be able to show them that this is not the right way with violence.
“I think we should have an alliance with the police department, with the fire department and with the people in our community.”
The alliance includes Second Baptist, Salem Baptist Church, McLaughlin Pentecostal Church, Trinity AME Church and Refreshing Springs Holy Temple.
Schneider also spoke, decrying growing wealth inequality as the root of the problems in communities like Baltimore.
“We’ve got to send a message, from a town where I believe with all my heart that it works; where local government and the community interact and have strong relationships, we’ve got to send a message,” Schneider said.
“We’re living in a society where the rich are getting much, much, much richer, and those of us who have to get up and go to work every morning … are struggling.
“Those aren’t decisions made by a cop on the beat. Those aren’t decisions made by a councilperson, or the mayor. They’re made in Washington … they’re made by lobbyists and corporations, while we’re being left behind — and we’re sending our cops into those areas to jobs that we don’t want to do.”
The Rev. Aaron Gibson, pastor of Second Baptist Church and a Baltimore native, spoke of the need to break down barriers between police departments and residents by communicating with one another regularly.
“We have to continue to develop relationships in our communities,” Gibson said. “Let’s talk to our residents and get closer to our residents. And also, let’s talk to our police. We cannot have two communities; we can’t have a community of police and a community of residents. We need to have one community.
“Violence is not the answer. We’re here, certainly, to condemn the killings of young African-American men and women in our inner cities, we are still here to condemn the killing of black-on-black crime … but we have to educate and communicate; violence is not the answer, relationships are the answer.”
Kevin Gilbert, a teacher at the Gregory School in Long Branch, said he marched in support of the Black Lives Matter demonstrations because he believes change will begin with the children.
“We need dialogue and community to bring about change, but the impact is going to start in our youth,” Gilbert said. “The greatest thing that I was able to be part of today was seeing some of my students and some of the students from the building where I teach.”
Before the crowd dispersed, Gibson noted that affecting real change wouldn’t end with the march, but would require ongoing efforts by community leaders, elected officials and the average resident to build and maintain the inclusive community he envisions.
“We can’t live in a vacuum. We’ve got to support those that are hurting,” Gibson said. “When we talk about injustice … we cannot fail to use the word ‘poverty.’
“We can’t live in violence. We’ve got to understand that poverty and unemployment and injustice drive a lot of things. We stand together here today to say, ‘an end to injustice and an end to inequality.’”