HERNANDO COUNTY, FL–On Saturday, June 27th, 2015, a contingent of 20 white activists pulled into the parking lot of the Hernando County Courthouse to hold a demonstration in solidarity with the black community and the demand for reparations to the African community.
A mob of over 300 Confederate and American flag-waving white nationalists waited anxiously for the protesters to show up on the courthouse steps.
The Uhuru Solidarity Movement (USM), the organization of white people led by the African People’s Socialist Party (APSP), led the contingent to the courthouse with the slogans, “Solidarity with the Black Community!” and “Stop White Terror on the Black Community!”
The demonstration was initiated by a Hernando County-based organizer, Bettejo Indelicato, in response to the nationwide “Burn the Confederate Flag” actions. Bettejo is a powerful activist known for her work in solidarity with Palestinian liberation.
Comrade Bettejo chose Brooksville as the site for the protest because the town is notorious for being the “lynching capitol of the country,” with the highest rate of lynching per capita than any other county in the United States.
The 1929 lynching of 19-year-old African, Carl Lang, who was captured by white nationalists and burned alive in the Withlacoochee forest, is one of many examples of the colonial terror in Hernando County’s history of white terror that is characteristic of Florida and America overall.
In 2012 a group of white nationalists in Pasco County, neighboring Hernando, burned a wooden cross in the front yard of an African man’s home.
On July 9,2015 the Marion County Courthouse in Ocala, Florida voted unanimously to fly the Confederate flag in front of a government building.
Showdown in Brooksville
Protestors drove from Tampa, Sarasota, St. Petersburg, and Spring Hill to unite with the call for “Reparations for Stolen Black Lives.” Within seconds, the white mob encircled the 20 protestors.
Red-faced and wide-eyed, they screamed profanities, pushed and shoved and growled racial epithets when not chanting “Go Home! Go Home!” and “USA! USA! USA!”
The solidarity contingent stood its ground, fearlessly faced the angry mob, and chanted together, “Solidarity! With The Black Community!”
As the chant grew louder, the white mob intensified its reaction: “USA! USA! USA!” At one point they recited the pledge of allegiance to America.
The Brooksville police stood back with their arms folded, smirking, as the white mob threatened and surrounded the protesters.
One Brooksville resident, a young white man wearing a Huey P. Newton shirt, passed out water bottles to the solidarity protesters and thanked them for coming.
In an interview with Brooksville press, Jesse Nevel of USM explained why the organizers decided against bringing any flags with them: “This is not about the Confederacy.
For us, the Confederate and American flags represent the same thing—a social system built on the enslavement of African people and genocide against the Indigenous people of this land.”
The Uhuru Solidarity Movement calls on white people to join the international campaign for “Reparations for Stolen Black Lives” that culminates with a month-long series of Days in Solidarity with African People events in October.
Reparations to African people!
Build the USM!
Build the USM!
