Update:
3:00 p.m.
A much smaller group of protestors have marched around downtown Auburn and are now in front of the Public Safety building on N. Ross St.
This building houses, among other things, Auburn's city council chamber and the city's police department.
2:45 p.m.
Police on Magnolia Ave. have begun blocking traffic from getting to Toomer's Corner.
Protestors have begun marching east of Magnolia Ave.
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Groups of people packed into downtown Auburn Sunday afternoon to protest following the extrajudicial killing of George Floyd, an unarmed black male, by a Minneapolis police officer.
Floyd's death, which occurred on Monday, May 25, has sparked similar protests across the country in the past week including one in Opelika on Saturday.
Protestors at Toomer's Corner on Sunday held signs with slogans such as "Black Lives Matter," "Fight White Supremacy" and "White Silence is Violence."
Similarly, the group shouted some of the messages which have been used by protestors across the country. Chants of "I can't breathe," "No justice; no peace" and "Don't shoot" echoed off the surrounding buildings.
Some of the cars passing through the downtown area sounded their horns in an apparent show of solidarity.
Ray Scott, one of the protestors at Toomer's Corner, said that events like the one on Sunday are over due.
"This protest is very necessary because enough is enough," Ray said. "Not all cops are bad, but if you have five bad cops and ten good cops, and none of them do anything about it, now you have 15 bad cops. That's the problem in our society."
Scott said that a lot of the issues being discussed across the nation have a direct impact on the Auburn community.
"In this nice, little, gated town that we have, it's not meant for, let's be honest, African Americans anymore," she said. "If you look at how the buildings are structured, what's being brought to this town, there's less and less places that are affordable for low-income [people] that just cannot afford to live here, and that affects a lot of African Americans."
Furthermore, Scott said that while Sunday's protest was important, it is only the beginning.
"Things have to change," she said. "Think it was a great turnout. I'm excited that it was peaceful. It felt more like a pep rally than a protest, which is fine; that's the first step."
This protest also comes months after the killing of Ahmaud Arbery, an unarmed black man, in Georgia. Arbery was jogging down a road on February 23, when two white men began to follow him in their truck. Arbery was then shot and killed by one of those men after they attempted to stop him.
Right before 2 p.m., the protestors at Toomer's Corner began marching around the intersection. As cars tried to pass through the intersection, the protestors often made room, allowing them to pass. Despite growing numbers and passionate voices, the crowd has remained orderly and peaceful.
Many of the protestors could be seen wearing masks, a reminder that these nation-wide protests are taking place amidst an on-going pandemic.
Around 3 p.m. some of the protestors marched around the downtown area before stopping in front of the Auburn Public Safety building. This building houses, among other things, Auburn's city council meetings and the city's police department. There, the chanting of slogans and Floyd's name continued until the protestors held a nine-minute moment of silence. These nine minutes represented the nine minutes when a police officer had his knee on Floyd's neck.
This story is being updated.
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Tim Nail, junior in journalism, is the campus editor for The Auburn Plainsman.
