Thousands of Protesters Marching Toward US Justice Department to Denounce Racism

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — Protesters from the March for Racial Justice rallied at Lincoln Park on Capitol Hill carrying posters with slogans such as "slavery never ended, it just evolved," "Militarized police guarantee tyranny" and "rise + resist."

Activists and performers rallied the crowd's enthusiasm by denouncing white supremacist policies in the United States. Speakers enjoined the racially mixed crowd to join hands with the people next to them for a moment of silence in remembrance of victims of racism. Speakers also denounced racial injustice, discrimination against immigrants and police brutality against African Americans.

The message of March for Racial Justice's is to dismiss white supremacy across the country, the rally organizer Maurice Cook told Sputnik.

"The message is that all of us can come together and love, to fight against this racist regime, and to start the process of dismissing white supremacy," Cook said.

The rally organizer claimed that the Trump administration was a manifestation of white supremacy.

Native Americans also joined the protest against racial discrimination as they were the first victims of the US white supremacist system, Piscataway tribal leader Sebastian Tayac told Sputnik.

They performed on traditional drums in recognition of indigenous people imprisoned by "this illegitimate state," Piscataway tribal leader Sebastian Tayac told the crowd, drawing cheers.

"Today we came out to stand in solidarity with other people of color and to represent as local tribal nations of what is now Washington, DC. Maryland is our ancestral land. We believe that any call for justice in our society and any call for justice especially in Washington, DC should serve with the native people, because we are the first people to be contacted, the first people to be colonized and the first people to be attacked by white supremacists system that has since enslaved, excluded, discriminated against and genocided many different groups," Tayac said.

He stressed that people of color had been fighting against racial discrimination for generations.

"Message I have to send today is that we, as native people and the native people of this earth right here, we stand in solidarity with these calls for racial justice and an end to the white supremacy. Our struggle is united, our struggle is generational, meaning it stretches all the way back, and we fight the same way as our parents, our grandparents and our ancestors all the way back in the fighting," Tayac concluded.

At 12:00 p.m. local time, the two groups of protesters will begin marching on the US Department of Justice, and onward toward the National Mall.

Organizers of the two national protests chose September 30 as the date for their demonstrations to mark the Elaine Massacre in Arkansas in 1919, when white mobs lynched as many as 240 black sharecroppers who had demanded better pay from white plantation owners.

The protests come as the nation debates a series of events that have cast a spotlight on the issues of racism, white supremacy and police brutality against minorities.

In August, a white supremacist rally turned bloody in Charlottesville, Virginia. Fresh protests erupted this month in the US states of Missouri and Georgia over the killings of black men by white police officers. Last week, athletes in the country's National Football League ignited a national uproar by kneeling during the national anthem to protest against police killings of unarmed black men.