Black Lives Matter Plans Protest On 1st Saturday Of State Fair
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- The Minnesota State Fair kicks off on Thursday.
As vendors make final preparations for the great Minnesota Get-Together, the Black Lives Matter movement's St. Paul chapter says it will peacefully protest on the first Saturday of the fair.
Beginning at 11 a.m. the group says hundreds of people will try to block main streets leading to the fair gates, including Snelling Avenue.
The group speaks out against the deaths of unarmed black people at the hands of law enforcement.
The group has shut down parts of I-35, main streets in St. Paul and the protest at the Mall of America.
State Fair organizers say they do not understand why it's the target of the latest protest.
General manager Jerry Hammer says the fair brings in $250 million per year in the Twin Cities alone, with its 1,100 vendors of food and fun.
That is where St. Paul Black Lives Matter organizer Rashad Turner takes issue with the fair.
He said economic injustices at the Minnesota State Fair toward communities of color are tied to social injustices.
"Our plan is to use our voice, be as loud as possible, to shut things down at the fair," he said.
Black Lives Matter is asking the fair to figure out a system to incorporate more people of color in the list of vendors.
Turner said he does not know how many people of color are vendors at the fair or if any were turned away, but he believes the fair is predominantly made up of white vendors.
Hammer said no one at the fair knows the race of vendors until they show up to set up for the fair.
"On the registration form, nowhere does it indicate race or religion," Hammer said.
Hammer said becoming a vendor at the fair is an extremely competitive process. Most vendors return year after year, but race is never a factor in deciding who gets to work the fair.
"That rhetoric on their part is just wrong, not true," Hammer said. "There're lots of people here of every ethnicity, from every neighborhood, who are taking part in the fair."
Hammer said he would give Black Lives Matter a booth at the fair, like any other political organization, even with such short notice.
Turner said the movement is not interested in having a booth at the fair instead of a protest outside in traffic near the fair. The Minnesota State Fair Communications Department says a man who claimed to be with Black Lives Matter -- but was not Turner -- accepted the application Tuesday, but had not signed a license agreement as of Tuesday evening.
Turner said there are no plans as of Friday to enter fairgrounds, but he's not making any promises.
"We are going to shut the fair down, and if they want to give us a booth after that and allow us to spread our message and spread the truth, that's fine," Turner said.
Fair organizers say, by law, no one can demonstrate inside the fair because of private property and public safety issues.
More than 350 state fair officers along with St. Paul police are prepared to stop protests within the fairgrounds.