While the anti-racism rallies in major cities across the U.S. have grabbed headlines, people living in smaller and mid-sized cities in the country have also raised their voices to call for change.
Sydnee Harris, of Omaha, Neb., joins dozens of others holding a rally, holding a Black Lives Matter poster outside the Omaha Douglas Civic Center in Omaha on Wednesday, June 3, 2020. OMAHA, NEB. -- Norfolk, Nebraska, is a quiet, conservative and predominantly white city of 24,000 people where public protests are rare, except for an annual rally against abortion.
While the rallies in major cities nationwide have grabbed headlines, people living in smaller and mid-sized cities have also raised their voices to call for change. Some of those protests have turned violent. Local officials in Farmington, New Mexico, were surprised when 250 protesters showed up for a peaceful rally in front of a mall. The town of 44,000 sits on the border of the Navajo Nation, and the demonstration attracted members of the American Indian Movement and other activists.
"Overall, our protests have been very positive," said Kristi Kent, a city spokeswoman. "We haven't seen any types of violence or negativity around them." Nebraska school officials have seen numerous instances over the years of fans shouting racist taunts at high school sporting events. The University of Nebraska faced some criticism in 2018 for not taking action against a student who identified himself as a white nationalist. And in Norfolk, racial tensions flared in 2014 when a resident entered a July 4 parade with an outhouse mounted on a float labeled, "Obama Presidential Library.
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