In the News

SPRINGFIELD — As Black Lives Matter protests around the country continue in the wake of George Floyd’s death at the hands of a white Minneapolis police officer, several residents of Springfield’s Atwater Park noticed an uncomfortable silence about the issue from their neighbors.

“George Floyd’s death was a shock for the entire nation,” said Jillian McLeod. “As a sub-community within Springfield we questioned where are the signs? Where was our solidarity in this moment? The silence told a story we were not satisfied with, so we decided to do something about that.”

McLeod, her husband, Stephen Jablonski, and neighbor Carmen Rosa organized a gathering Tuesday to place signs on lawns supporting the movement.

The first stop was at U.S. Rep. Richard Neal’s home, and then the group made its way up Atwater Terrace.The signs were purchased by Jablonski and McLeod since the Atwater Park Civic Association decided not to make it a neighborhood initiative.

“We reached out to the association to join us and they for reasons known to them didn’t think it was appropriate to come,” she said.

Kelli Moriarty-Finn, clerk for the association, participated in the event and put a sign on her lawn.

“The association is a nonprofit 501c3 so unfortunately we can’t put it on our website, we can’t pay for signage, we can’t pay for flyers, but thankfully Stephen Jablonski, Carmen Rosa and a few others organized the event today,” she said. “The hard part of having a civic association is that you ride the fine line. You want to be able to participate in certain things, but because you are a legal entity you are bound from doing so. I was very pleased with the turnout today.”

The gathering included a short program with comments from several neighbors, including Neal and Springfield City Councilor Michael Fenton.

Springfield City Council President Justin Hurst doesn’t live in the neighborhood, but was invited to speak. He said the national examples of police brutality against Black people including George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor have made people reflect on systemic racism in their own communities.

“I thought about Springfield and most recently I read the Department of Justice report about the pattern and practice of excessive force right here in this city, and it never was lost on me that there were multiple incidents where we could have had a George Floyd,” he said. “We really need to look inward at the same time that we are acknowledging that Black lives matter, and we need to really look at what’s happening here in Springfield.”

Several members of the community who are not Atwater Park residents attended the event, including Charles Stokes, of the Black Liberation Alliance for Change, a Springfield-based grassroots organization highlighting racism, injustice and police brutality in the city.

He said he came in support of the event, but also expressed frustration about the fact that the Black community at large was not informed of the event or invited to participate.

“I am here in support of what they are doing, but a lot of these events turn into political exploitation of our pain and our suffering and we need to have a voice to express what’s going on,” he said. “We are looking for allies and accomplices, but it can’t be monopolized and taken from us.”

McLeod, who is Black, said part of the objective of the event was to acknowledge that there are people of color living in the neighborhood who may not feel comfortable speaking out.

“There is an air of exclusivity here that may have its own life, and I also think that the diverse members of our community may not feel visible,” she said. “We are hoping this event makes people of color visible and makes it possible to assert one’s difference in positive ways. I think we live in a very civil community, but it is not clear that it is a universally racially conscious community, and those of us who are racially conscious have decided that we can’t be silent anymore.”

Hurst said it is also important to have allies in every neighborhood in the city.

“It’s not easy to have the courage to speak up and speak out when we see wrong and we see injustice in the city of Springfield,” he said. “We are on the cusp of being able to affect change, and in order to do that we need everybody, elected officials, community leaders and folks that don’t look like me to speak out and be present at events just like this.”