Hundreds of students and residents marched from Temple University’s Main Campus to Center City Wednesday afternoon to protest the death of George Floyd, a Black man who died in Minnesota on May 25 after a white police officer kneeled on his neck for nearly nine minutes.
The protestors marched to show their support for the Black Lives Matter movement, pressure City Council to vote against an expanded police budget and push Temple to cut ties with the Philadelphia Police Department. A petition asking Temple to end its partnership with PPD has more than 2,500 signatures.
Beginning at the corner of Cecil B. Moore Avenue and Broad Street, they marched up Liacouras Walk through Main Campus before turning onto Broad Street and walking to the Philadelphia Art Museum and City Hall.
The protest that began at Temple was organized by Temple for Bernie, Local Initiative Local Action and Party for Socialism and Liberation – Philly, according to an event page on Facebook.
Along the way, other groups of protestors that had been marching in the city joined the group as they made a unified walk down Broad and Spring Garden streets.
Several times throughout the march, protest leaders asked the crowd to stop and take a knee in honor of Floyd, whose death has set off a round of protests and riots throughout the nation. At one point, protestors laid face-down in the middle of Broad Street and observed nine minutes of silence in honor of Floyd.
Police followed at the front and rear of the protest as protestors marched around cars stuck in the crowds. While some protests in Philadelphia earlier this week have turned violent and led to hundreds of arrests, Wednesday afternoon’s demonstration was peaceful.
After arriving at City Hall, protestors marched north in the direction of Main Campus, according to a tweet.
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