Chicagoans hit the streets Thursday night to renew calls to reclaim neighborhoods from guns and gangs as summer approaches.
A group of about 100 people marched through the streets of the South Shore neighborhood calling for an end to gun violence.
“It's time for us to get out of our own little worlds and it's time for us to take our city back,” said community activist Jedidiah Brown.
Among the group was Nortasha Stingley, whose 19-year-old daughter Marissa became a victim of gun violence in 2013.
“We must have faith and we must come together and we must do this,” Stingley said. “Our kids are dying at a rapid rate.”
Sandra Bland’s mother joined the calls for peace. Bland died in a Texas jail cell in summer 2015.
“Our kids are dying and it's not just police brutality, it is us. In our own communities too,” Bland’s mother Geneva Reed-Veal said.
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The group included community activists, religious leaders, and Chicago police Superintendent Eddie Johnson made a brief appearance as well.
“I say that the violence needs to stop in our communities because we want to live,” one young girl shouted into the crowd.
A large group gathered with one goal in mind—hoping that their pleas for peace will be heard.
“We can win our communities back by changing the climate from hate to love,” said Bishop Larry Trotter of Sweet Holy Spirit Church.
