Images from the Friday, June 5 New Orleans Workers Group/Southern Solidarity/Black Lives Matter rally in Jackson Square. People were clearly prepared for looting or other rabble-rousing– businesses were boarded up again (with the coming tropical storm serving as a convenient OTHER reason to be doing so) and there were cop cars ALL around the French Quarter. One of the final speakers, after many speeches promoting peace (while also being firm with demands around police reform), even acknowledged, “And maybe there ARE individuals out there in the alleys with bricks, waiting to drop windows. But that’s not OUR band.” She then requested that everyone leave the plaza by way of the river; that they spend a moment at the river, which brought so many Africans to New Orleans as slaves and which has brought so much devastation to the city in its 300 years, but which also can wash things away and bring blessings. It was a quiet, peaceful, and beautiful way to round out a long week of mostly peaceful but sometimes tense protests. The attendance estimate I heard was 5000.

Images from the Thursday, June 4 New Orleans Workers Group/Southern Solidarity/Black Lives Matter march through Central City, across the Broad Street Bridge to Orleans Parish Prison. People seemed braced for violence following the teargas the night before, but the events concluded peacefully. The attendance estimate I heard was 4000.

Images from the Wednesday, June 3 BLM march through the CBD and up the Crescent City Connection, before the peaceful protest was fired upon with teargas by the NOPD.

Images from the first round of 2020 marches and rallies protesting police brutality following the murders of George Floyd, Tony McDade, and Modesto Reyes. (Friday, May 29 and Saturday, May 30)

Images from the 2018 Women’s March, March for Our Lives, and Pride Parade in New Orleans.