Protesters return to East Liberty for march centered on Black women and Black trans women

Roughly 200 people gathered in front of Target in East Liberty Friday afternoon for a protest against police violence — the 28th day of such demonstrations in the Pittsburgh area.

Organizers gathered supporters to center the focus of the protest on assuring the safety of Black women and Black trans women in interactions with police.

Participants circled the intersection of Centre and Penn avenues to rally and hear speakers before beginning to march down Centre. The march crossed the Centre and Negley intersection, where the interactions between police and protesters on the evening of June 1 are being investigated to determine if police acted appropriately in using crowd deterrents. On Friday, protesters stopped at the intersection and chanted “Black lives, they matter here.”

Some of the organizers and supporters of the protest were there on June 1 when police deployed what appeared to be tear gas to disperse the crowd. Some spoke up to address the tension and emotion in the air stemming from that incident — noting that the police did not use gas on them this time, but instead stopped traffic for them to continue their movement.

As the protest marched past East Liberty businesses with “Black Lives Matter” signs in the windows, patrons and employees watched. Some cheered the protesters on and joined in on the chants, while others attempted to castigate and argue against protesters.

Below are some of the scenes from Friday’s demonstration in Pittsburgh:

Jay Manning is a visual storyteller and producer for PublicSource. He can be reached at jay@publicsource.org.