Aly Richards ’22, Staff Writer
There will be a march in support of the Black Lives Matter movement starting in the academic quad on Saturday, Oct. 17, at 3 p.m.
Ariana Genna, a sophomore political science and social justice double major and the vice president of LVC Democrats, explained why the club is sponsoring the event.
“We want LVC and we want our community to have this dialogue and to have this conversation together,” Genna said. “We thought it was really important to bring together people from LVC and people from Annville to talk about this stuff, to talk about racism at LVC and racism in our community.”
Despite the fact that the event is being hosted by LVC Democrats, Genna emphasizes that she wants the event to be non-partisan.
“We don’t want to be partisan with this because equality shouldn’t be partisan and it shouldn’t be politicized,” Genna said. “Anybody is welcome to be there, and we are hoping that people see this event as something anybody can go to.”
Genna explained that a good portion of the event is educating people and encouraging voter registration, especially considering several studies show that many college students do not vote. The date was chosen specifically because it’s shortly before voter registration is due.
“We want to have voter registration at that event because we want that to be our effect,” Genna said. “We want people to show up to the polls and care about it. Whether that be voting Republican or Democrat or libertarian, whatever that may be, we want people to care. We want people to elect representatives that care about black lives and care about equality.”
Some pushback is to be expected, especially with the growing countermovement. Genna stated that she and her clubmates are prepared for the pushback.
“There has been a lot of pushback from what is already happening,” Genna said. “When it comes to the actual day of the march, I really hope that everybody is safe and that if there are counter-protests, that they are respectful of us like we will be to them.”
The march will start and end in the academic quad and the rest of the route will be announced soon. After the march, there will be tables with information about voter registration and guest speakers in the academic quad, with the event wrapping up around 5 p.m.
Masks are required.