Pastors, hundreds gather in Hill District for peaceful George Floyd protest

Hundreds of people from varied faiths gathered at Freedom Corner in Pittsburgh’s Hill District for about 90 minutes of prayers and speeches as the nation reels from the May 25 death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

“Enough is enough,” the Rev. Glenn Grayson told the crowd that gathered at noon on the cloudless, sunny day at the memorial park where many of the city’s social justice marches have been held. They later marched about a mile to the City-County Building.

“Today we look to God to aid us in the struggle to heal our land of systematic racism,” Grayson said. “A change must come. … We cannot sleep until justice reigns. The day of reckoning has come.”

A prayer and protest rally at Freedom Corner in Pittsburgh’s Hill District. https://t.co/QH1mpEhdLv

— Tom Davidson (@TribDavidson) June 1, 2020

Change won’t come through violence, however, but by people becoming active and voting, he said.

Grayson, who is pastor of Wesley Center AME Zion Church in the Hill District, was joined by eight other clergy in what was billed as a “prayer and protest rally” organized by an informal group of clergy in the region.

It was planned Friday, a day before the first of the protests over the death of Floyd was held in Pittsburgh.

The Saturday protest started peacefully, but ended with police SUVs set ablaze, 46 arrests and a chaotic scene that included damage to Downtown storefronts.

Volunteers came out in force Sunday to help with the cleanup and peaceful protests were held in the city, in Greensburg and Butler.

The clergy-led protest was intended to show a united front among the faith-based community to call for justice to apply to all people, no matter their race, creed or sexual orientation, Grayson said.

“We all care about justice for all,” he said. “We will speak truth to power if need be.”

His words were echoed and expanded upon by the other speakers. Nine clergy spoke to represent nine minutes — the time a Minneapolis police officer knelt on Floyd’s neck before he died.

“Today the country is still on fire,” Grayson said. “The dust has not settled.”