Greenville's Malcolm X Center for Self-Determination served as a voice for the Black Lives Matter movement at a teach-in on Saturday.
"Vision for Black Lives: Policy Demands for Black Power, Freedom & Justice" was a four-and-a-half hour event held by the Malcolm X Center at Greenville's Martin Webb Learning Center. Panel discussions about six planks of "Vision for Black Lives" were scheduled between chants, candle lighting, complimentary lunch and guest lectures.
The Malcolm X Center is under the direction of human rights advocate and lawyer Efia Nwangaza, who organized the teach-in.
"The main purpose behind the teach-in is to begin to educate the community, the black community specifically, on what is the purpose of Black Lives Matter," Nwangaza said. "And to begin to build a national agenda and conversation about what the best interests of black people are."
Nwangaza says that those interests include, but are not limited to putting an end to police killings of black citizens.
The walls of the room were decorated with posters in support of Black Lives Matter. Posters with the slogans "Hands Up, Don't Shoot!" and "I can't breathe" were taped up, each with the hashtag "#ShutItDown."
Saadiqa Kumanyika, a lecturer at Clemson University, attended the event and served as a panelist to discuss one of the six planks, which is "End the War on Black People."
"The U.S. has the highest incarceration rate in the world," Kumanyika said, "and the majority of the people that are behind bars in the United States are blacks and Latinos."
Kumanyika outlined different ways in which arrests and convictions can impact people, particularly people of color and people in poverty. One instance includes spending many days in jail before receiving a court date due to an inability to pay bail costs.
"That can have devastating consequences for them because they might end up losing their job, they might end up having their children taken away from them while they're in jail or they might get evicted from their homes, right?" Kumanyika said. "So, we demand an end to money bail, mandatory fines, fees, court surcharges and defendant-funded court proceedings."
Candace Brewer, whose uncle, Charles Rosemond Sr. of Greer, was killed by police last year, also attended the teach-in.
Brewer says that Black Lives Matter is important to her because she wants to make sure that what happened to Rosemond does not happen to other families.
"I'm hoping that people learn how to interact with law enforcement, but not only them interacting with law enforcement," Brewer said. "I'm hoping that law enforcement learns how to interact with us so that they can stop killing us."
Brewer said that since Rosemond's death, she has been an active supporter and advocate of BLM, and has been "doing [her] own type of investigation" in an effort to find out the details of what happened the day he was killed.
"I'm expecting a change to come," Brewer said.
The teach-in had a primary focus on educating the people in attendance on the goals and action plans of the BLM movement, but on the Saturday following, the movement will take the form of protests in Columbia. Like the teach-in, though, the peaceful protests are in part a response to police killings of black people.
"We are tired of this systematic killing of our brothers, sister, mothers, sons, partners," a Facebook page for the event says. "[We] understand that grief and pain are dealt with differently by different people, but we are not condoning, advocating, allowing any violence, window smashing, etc."
The protests and vigil will begin at the South Carolina Statehouse on Oct. 1 at 7 p.m. Organizers encourage anyone to attend, including performers and artists.
The event organizers aim to "create a space for discussion, grief, gathering and healing."