Students walked out of school Friday, November 13th at 2:00pm, lead by the school’s Social Justice Organization, in support of issues of racism happening at Mizzou.

For several weeks before this walkout, protests had begun at the Mizzou campus in Columbia, MO, due to the disapproval from students regarding how administration was handling racism on campus. Following these series of protests and strikes, the president of the college resigned. After most of this had happened, students at GCAA formed a walkout to show support for the protesting students and other students of color from the school.

At 2:00pm on the day of the event, informed and willing students left the school building and gathered out on the field of grass owned by the Black Repertory Theatre. The Social Justice Organization, who were in charge of the creation and execution of the event, spoke to the students to clarify safety rules and important information, such as to stay on the sidewalk, where they were walking to, and that they should take the event seriously. Shaquana Williams, co-founder of the Social Justice Organization and walkout leader, wanted to ensure students were walking out for the right reasons.

“Before we left we talked to the students about what we were marching for, and if they weren’t out there for the right reasons, then they should just go back into the school because we’re not walking just to get out of school,” said Williams. “It’s not a game. Our lives are not a game.”

Regarding safety, the Social Justice Organization wanted the students to be cautious during the walk, asking them to stay on the sidewalk and saying that they would not be walking in the street or blocking traffic at all.

“We had people guarding all sides of the crowd,” said Bisa Adero, another person greatly involved in the organization of the walkout. “We stopped every once in awhile for one, for the rest of the group to catch up, and two, cause we have to cross streets and make sure everybody was safe. I felt that if there wasn’t a person who was showing them the way, and keeping them safe, and having them educated on what they were doing, that it would be lost, a lot of people wouldn’t really care as much, people wouldn’t know what was going on, or what to do, or how to be safe.”

After the debrief, the group of students walked south on Grand Boulevard, from the school building to a coffee shop called Mocabees at South Grand and Arsenal Street, totaling 2.7 miles. Throughout the walk, students recited chants, such as “No justice, no peace” and “M-I-Z-Z-O-U, justice for me and you”, among others.

Students were also holding signs with quotes on them, many provided by the Social Justice Organization. Every once in awhile, the group stopped to rest for a moment and recited some of the quotes, which were “empowering quotes to keep them going as we were walking, because it was cold, and I know some of them were tired,” according to Adero.

“We just wanted some of the kids to understand what they were doing, and also to remind them that, again, black lives matter,” she added.

As the group continued, some students began to leave, but those who stayed reached Mocabees, where they stopped and many arranged to be picked up.

“The people who participated and stayed through the march the whole time, they felt accomplished, like they were part of something, part of history, and they felt like they were being supportive,” said Williams.

“The people who made it, I mean, we was just proud. We was proud. And we was very excited just to know that they did it. When we got there, everybody was cheering, and screaming, and they were celebrating this accomplishment that we got,” said Adero.