St. Cloud Community Members March, Gather for Daunte Wright Vigil Friday Evening

(KNSI) – On Friday evening, around one hundred people gathered in Seberger Park in St. Cloud to hold a vigil for Daunte Wright, who was killed by police during a traffic stop in Brooklyn Center on Sunday.

Volunteers passed out electric tea lights and water bottles. Beginning on the west side of the park, organizers shared poetry and stories about police violence. Nita Jones, organizer and executive director of Too Much Talent, shared her poem “What’s the Procedure?”

Nita Jones (center left) and Lenora Hunt (center right). Photo by Dene Dryden

“What’s the procedure when I’m afraid, I’m tired and weary?” Jones recited. “My hands are held high. I surrender. What’s the procedure?”

Lenora Hunt, founder of Too Much Talent, expressed her thoughts at the vigil.

“I’m tired that my son is afraid to driven even though he’s 16 with a license. I’m tired,” she said. “I’m tired when I go into a bank and they help somebody else out and I’m still sitting in the back. I’m tired. I’m tired, and this — if we could come together like this, we could come together to make policies.”

As sunset faded, organizers held a moment of silence for Wright and others who have been killed by police officers, then the crowd marched around the park to the cry of “No justice, no peace!”

Organizers then designated a place for offerings like flowers, signs and candles.

Jones shared another story with the crowd: More than 50 years ago, her mother grew up in a Midwestern community where her Black family was accepted. When she traveled to the South to see extended family for the first time, Jones said her mother’s father had to have “the talk” with her at a gas station because she didn’t realize the bathrooms there were segregated, and she had used the facility designated “whites only.” Jones then reflected on how she has had “the talk” about what to do in the presence of law enforcement with her kids and other children in the community.

“We stand here together in solidarity, demanding change,” Jones said. “We know that it may take another 50 years, but that change, well, it starts today. I don’t want my kids to have to have that talk with their children or listen to the stories about their grandmother — me — going through things like this. There should never be another George Floyd. There should never be another Daunte Wright. There should never be another Tamir Rice.”