Black Mothers Rising Rally In South Brunswick This Saturday

SOUTH BRUNSWICK, NJ — A group called Black Mothers Rising will hold a rally and public conversation outside the South Brunswick Community Center this Saturday, Aug. 8.

Black Mothers Rising will meet from 10 a.m. to noon at the South Brunswick Community Center (124 New Road, Monmouth Junction, NJ 08852), for prayer, mediation and conversation. All are welcome. Participants are asked to wear a mask and follow social distancing rules.

Members of the South Brunswick police will be in attendance; they will be on hand to coordinate traffic issues. Several local South Brunswick mothers will also address police and the crowd.

Black Mothers Rising was formed by former Princeton resident, Nakeisha Ammons, who now lives in Montgomery. She has held several similar events in Princeton and Montgomery this summer in response to the death of George Floyd. For example, her group held this event June 28 at the Skillman Community Center.

Ammons said she was asked by local South Brunswick moms to organize a similar event in this town.

"Their concerns are to have the (South Brunswick) police know their children, and also to see if they can extenuate the junior or youth police program and also to develop some sort of mentor programs between youth and the police," Ammons told Patch.

The group will hold a vigil for the more than eight minutes that a police officer knelt on Flody's neck, and hear poetry. Ammons said she expects anywhere from 30 to 50 people.

In this previous profile on the Princeton Patch, Ammons, who is African American, said she wouldn't allow her children to play with Nerf or water guns growing up, for fear they are mistaken for real guns.

"I have two teenagers and live in a state of constant anxiety of letting them outside," said Ammons, who works with the Princeton Police as a crossing guard.

After Floyd's killing, Ammons said she was terrified to even let her son go around the corner to Wawa for fear of being pulled over.

"I don't want to have a battle with police. I just want to let them know our feelings as mothers of those children who do not come home," she said. "I looked at my father, I looked at my brother and I looked at my son. Whether they are young or old, we fear for our children. We are held in a different light when it comes to law enforcement."

For more information about the Black Mothers Rising cause, visit gofundme.com/f/black-mothers-rising.

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Editor's note: While South Brunswick officers will be on hand to coordinate traffic issues, no police are speaking at the event.