George Floyd protesters couldn’t march to Miami Beach. A 13-year-old organized her own.
Since protesters in Miami joined the movement to call for police reform 11 days ago, armed police and state troopers have blocked demonstrators from crossing over Biscayne Bay onto Miami Beach.
A 13-year-old decided to organize her own march.
Egyptia Green, who lives in Miami Beach with her mother, led a small and peaceful march along Ocean Drive in South Beach on Tuesday.
“I just want to make the world a better place,” Green said. “I’m glad that I could get my word out.”
The protest was the first of its kind in Miami Beach following the May 25 death of Minneapolis man George Floyd in police custody. The four officers involved in his death have been fired and criminally charged.
The rising eighth-grader at Ransom Everglades School held a sign showing solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement, which read “BLM #EnoughisEnough.” Green, who was joined by her mother Bridjette Hoilett-Green, designed a flier for the protest and made shirts for her and her mother.
Compared to Miami-Dade County as a whole, where about 17% of the population is black, Miami Beach’s black community makes up 4% of its population, according to city data. About 75% of the city’s population is white, compared to about 15% countywide.
Miami Beach’s policing tactics, especially against black spring breakers, have been called “racist” by the Miami-Dade chapter of the NAACP.
During spring break in March, Miami Beach cops tackled one spring breaker, punched two others and grabbed a young woman by the throat when she had already fallen onto Ocean Drive following a collision with an officer.
“I don’t want to just protest for George Floyd, but protest for all black people out there and [say] that their lives should matter,” Green said.
Miami Beach Commissioners Ricky Arriola and Michael Góngora and members of the city’s police force joined the 10-block march from Fifth Street to 15th Street. Green ended her march with a kneeling moment of silence. About two dozen participants joined the march.
“A small voice can be a strong voice,” Hoilett-Green said.
Essay sealed the deal
Before receiving approval from her parents to hold the protest, Green submitted a three-paragraph essay to her father in Sweden outlining why she wanted to organize the march. Hoilett-Green then reached out to the city to coordinate.
Green, who plays competitively in the United States Tennis Association and is a member of her school’s student government, has always been a precocious child, her mother said. Her science-fair projects were “intense.”
“I think we have a group of young people who are very passionate,” Hoilett-Green said. “They are not going to stop until they see change.”
Arriola said Green was an “outstanding young woman.”
“I thank her for doing this here on the Beach,” he said. “It’s important that demonstrations like this take place on every street corner in America.”
This story was originally published June 9, 2020 at 6:32 PM.
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