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The Tufts Daily
Where you read it first | Thursday, March 28, 2024

Tufts students join Boston 4 Mile March

2015-01-19-4-Mile-March-13
A girl chants "Black lives matter" during the 4 Mile March in Boston, Mass. on Jan. 19.

Dozens of Tufts students walked in the 4 Mile March through downtown Boston yesterday in continued protest of police violence and racial profiling against black Americans.

The group met at the Mayer Campus Center and traveled together to the Old State House, the site of the 1770 Boston Massacre, where they joined the larger group of protestors. The protest began around 1 p.m. with a rally and speeches by the organizers.

Similar 4 Mile Marches were held in nearly 30 cities in the U.S., including Ferguson, Cleveland and New York City on Martin Luther King Day. The Coalition Against Police Violence, an organization committed to the demilitarization of police, sponsored the marches and rallies and maintained a national 4 Mile March website.

Boston’s march began at the Old State House and circled the Common, pausing for two four and a half-minute die-ins to recall the approximately four hours Michael Brown’s body lay in the street after he was shot in Ferguson last August. During the die-ins, organizers read the names of other black and brown men and women who had been killed by police.

The march ended in front of the new State House. After the crowd held the second die-in outside the new State House, protestors gathered to listen to several more speeches from organizers and students about their goals for equality in America. Speakers also addressed several other issues, including ending mass incarceration, raising the minimum wage and removing Boston from consideration as an Olympic host.

“Everybody is waiting for Martin Luther King or Malcolm X to come out and give their instructions about how to liberate ourselves,” organizer Martin Henson said. “It’s not going to happen … we are all in this together. My heart is in a struggle, make sure yours is too.”