Marchers maintain high spirits

A member of the Osage County Sheriff's Department walks by counter-protesters Thursday morning in Linn during the arrival of the NAACP "Journey for Justice" protesters.
A member of the Osage County Sheriff's Department walks by counter-protesters Thursday morning in Linn during the arrival of the NAACP "Journey for Justice" protesters.

Thursday's march through Central Missouri was much calmer - albeit with mixed reactions from spectators - than the racial slurs and waving Confederate flags that "Journey for Justice" marchers faced the day before as they walked through the Rosebud community.

When the marchers walked through Linn on Thursday, they occasionally passed people holding cardboard signs in support of Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson.

But a few miles later on U.S. 50, the reactions of motorists were more mixed or unclear as they honked their car horns while passing the marchers.

One driver leaned out of his window, snapping pictures as he shouted, "I admire you!"

Another man yelled, "Support Darren Wilson!"as he passed.

The marchers Thursday said the journey has come to represent much more than one shooting. The systemic problems concerning race and the American justice system have only been amplified by the recent attention given to police shootings of black men, they said.

The most recent case they cited is that of Eric Garner, who was strangled to death in a chokehold by a police officer in New York. On Wednesday night, a grand jury acquitted the police officer even though the entire incident was recorded on camera. Protests broke out in the city after the decision was released.

President Obama is asking Congress for millions of dollars for body cameras as an effort to increase accountability. But following the Garner case, people who have advocated for systemic change in law enforcement are now questioning the effectiveness of body cameras.

"The body cameras wouldn't be bad," said Mustafaa Rose, a Lincoln University student. "But from what is clearly been shown, it wouldn't make a difference because they're (police are) still getting away with it."

Despite the overcast skies, aching feet and sporadic hostile signs and shouts, the spirits remained high among the marchers Thursday.

Phill Dage, a busker from Detroit, looked over the frozen Missouri fields covered with the silhouettes of bare trees.

"Beautiful country here," he said.

Dage spent much of the march singing protest songs and playing his bongo drum alongside his buddy Randy Chabot, also from Detroit, as well as a new friend who played maracas and tambourine, Alexander Ross from Fayetteville, Arkansas.

"In protests, I think music is a very powerful form of resistance," Dage said."Music has that mysterious way of bringing us together. And if we can sing together, it's going to be very hard to argue and to look at the other person in a negative way."

Rasheed Ali is another walker who traveled far to join the march. Wearing a bright orange vest and responding only to "Ali!," he sprinted up and down the line of marchers with a video camera, determined to record each participant.

Back home in South Carolina, Ali flips houses -"maybe two a year"- and sells books at Christian conferences in order to fund his trips to various protests across the nation.

When he saw people with anti-Michael Brown signs in Linn, he said he hugged them.

"It blew a lot of people's minds," Ali said. "I love being the one to break down barriers, because they want to talk, and I want to hear what they have to say. That don't mean people can't disagree and get along."

Other marchers claimed a much closer home.

About half-dozen student leaders from Lincoln University joined the march Thursday.

Kendall Wright, a leader of Lincoln University's LGBT group and political science major, said he decided to change his career path from foreign policy to law or national politics after hearing about the recent national events concerning police violence.

"It makes me want to be more involved with politics here in this nation because I want to know the laws more in depth and enforce those laws," Wright said. "I want to be able to tell individuals, "Hey, we have certain rights.'"