Fort Worth crowd of hundreds gathers for downtown protest early Tuesday due to curfew
For the fifth day in a row, Fort Worth protesters gathered outside the Tarrant County Courthouse and marched through downtown streets to demand police accountability in the death of George Floyd.
The demonstration started at 3 p.m. Tuesday, earlier than previous protests due to an 8 p.m. curfew Fort Worth officials enacted Monday. Protest leader Carol Harrison-Lafayette said people would be able to register to vote.
About 15 people were at the courthouse at the start of the event Tuesday afternoon, but the crowd grew into the hundreds and the march was still going strong for several hours.
Shortly after 7 p.m., organizers and most of the protesters headed home, but a couple hundred people stayed behind and discussed plans to walk to the West 7th District tonight despite the approaching curfew.
Speakers who addressed the crowd said they plan to meet at 4 p.m. Wednesday on West 7th Street, the area that police blocked them from going to Sunday night. Leaders said they didn’t want to go there tonight, but a smaller group disagreed.
Asked if he was planning to stay past curfew, one man said, “If the justice comes before the curfew, we’ll leave.”
A few minutes before the start of curfew, about 150 people remained downtown.
One young woman, Jordan Conner, said she’s not worried about breaking curfew. “They break the rules of how they’re supposed to protect people. We break the simple rules of curfew,” she said
One of the organizers of this week’s demonstrations, Krista Daniels, said her late husband, the Rev. Weldon Daniels, led a protest at the Tarrant County Courthouse in 1993 when skinheads killed a black man in a drive-by shooting in Fort Worth. A teenager involved in the murder got probation at first, but after protests was sentenced to 40 years.
“My husband passed in December,” Daniels said. “I was robbed in March, and these same officers came to my protection.”
Daniels said the protests are intended to be peaceful.
“We are not going to loot. We are not going to riot,” she said. “If you are here for any other agenda, I would advise you to leave now.”
Many families with children joined in the protest Tuesday.
At least two protesters needed medical attention, apparently overheated or dehydrated in the afternoon’s 91-degree weather. Other marchers held signs over one man and brought him water. They cheered and thanked officers and paramedics who put the man into an ambulance.
When the crowd returned to the courthouse steps about 6 p.m., protest leader Donnell Ballard said, “Fort Worth is on notice.” He says protesters and speakers will be at a Fort Worth City Council meeting on Thursday.
On Saturday, hundreds marched peacefully downtown and disbanded without incident. On Sunday, protesters were tear gassed on the West 7th Street Bridge as they tried to march into Fort Worth’s cultural district. Fifty people were arrested.
And at Monday’s protest, a tense standoff, which started about 30 minutes past the 8 p.m. curfew, ended after police Chief Ed Kraus knelt and prayed with protesters.
This story was originally published June 2, 2020 at 3:52 PM.
