Community Leaders Organize Hands Across Philadelphia Anti-Violence March
By Cherri Gregg
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) --- Community leaders held a press conference this week to announce the second annual Hands Across Philadelphia march, which is scheduled for next Saturday. Scores of groups will join hands to stop violence in the city.
So far this year Philadelphia has seen roughly 180 murders. The majority of the victims are Black men, killed by Black men.
"We're sick and tired of losing our young men and our young women in the streets," says John Jordan, director of civic engagement for the Pennsylvania NAACP.
"It's time to stand up to these cowards that are attacking people in wheelchairs, people who are disabled. It's time for the cowards to stand down and the real men to stand up," he says.
Jordan says 50 groups, including the NAACP and Mothers in Charge, have signed up to meet at 52nd and Woodland Avenue at noon on September 27. He says there will be hubs of information set up at each block as the group marches to Jefferson Street.
"We're going to have churches assembled on those corners, choirs singing, people galvanizing those neighborhoods to come out and join us on the march," he says. "We're going to assemble and try to hold one of the largest marches the city has ever seen."
Voter registration tables will also be on hand to get people signed up before the November election.
Jordan says the Taney Dragons Little League team is part of the march, as well as members of Mothers in Charge and other dozens of other groups. For details on the march, check out the Hands Across Philadelphia Facebook page.