Danvers To Host Vigil Against Racism, Homophobia, Antisemitism

DANVERS, MA — Organizers of the Danvers "Vigil of Inclusion" are hoping to bring town residents together on Saturday amid a rash of painfully divisive incidents.

The Danvers Human Rights and Inclusion Committee is joining with the Danvers Interfaith Partnership to host what they are calling "a townwide affirmation in response to homophobia, racism and antisemitism in the town of Danvers."

Over the past two weeks, the town has been the center of some glaring attention amid accusations of racist behavior and homophobic hazing within the high school boys hockey program, as well as racist and antisemitic graffiti — including two swastikas — found inside a middle school bathroom.

(READ: 'Our Community Has Been Traumatized': Danvers School Committee)

Town and school officials acknowledged in a joint statement last week that those two incidents are part of a greater series of racially and culturally intolerant acts within the town in recent years.

"We are acutely aware that this most recent incident fits into a broader pattern," school and town officials said in the joint statement following the graffiti found at Holten Richmond Middle School, "both within our schools and within our broader community that includes allegations of racial profiling at a local business, an apparent noose left outside a local church, an investigation into racist and homophobic behavior last year by student-athletes, a Confederate flag flown in our downtown as part of a political rally and a swastika discovered in the woods behind the middle school.

"We want to be clear in our condemnation of these acts, actions and allegations. Individually, they are ugly, unacceptable and have no place in Danvers or any other community. Collectively, they are proof that there is much work to be done."

The "vigil for prayerful witness and healing" is set to begin at 4:30 p.m. at the town library gazebo.

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached atScott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)

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