Community members held a candlelight vigil to honor the lives of Breonna Taylor and Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Saturday at San Jose City Hall, where speakers shared their thoughts on the two women.
Ginsburg, who died at 87 from complications of advanced pancreatic cancer on Sept. 18, was known for her work for gender equality and for being the second woman to become a supreme court justice, according to a Sept. 18 Associated Press article.
Taylor, a 26-year-old woman, was fatally shot by police in her apartment on March 13 while officers were executing a “no-knock” warrant. Brett Hankison, one of the officers who shot blindly into Taylor’s apartment, was indicted for endangering the lives of residents in the apartment complex as decided by a grand jury during the Wednesday court case in Louisville, according to a Sept. 24 New York Times article.
The vigil was organized by the San Jose/Silicon Valley chapter youth branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and other Black youth organizations in the surrounding areas like Silver Creek and Milpitas high schools’ Black student unions.
Kyle Dacallos, president of the San Jose/Silicon Valley chapter of the NAACP youth branch, said he wanted to feature voices he knew. He said he wanted the event to be organized by the youth from the community.
YouthHype, an organization focused on empowering youth in marginalized communities, was one of the organizations to endorse the event. Others included Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) California, a group dedicated to empowering American Muslims and Silicon Valley De-Bug, a group dedicated to sharing community stories and advocacy. Members from some of these organizations also spoke at the vigil.
Sharon Watkins, a software specialist at SJSU and member of Silicon Valley De-Bug, focused on the experience of Taylor's mother. As a mother herself, whose 23-year-old son was killed by the police on Feb. 11, 2015, Watkins empathized with Taylor’s family.
“I never met Breonna Taylor's mother, I've never had a conversation with her,” Watkins said during the vigil. “Well, we're bonded because I can tell you what she’s feeling.”
Rev. Jethroe Moore II, San Jose/Silicon Valley chapter NAACP president, invited some of the speakers, specifically the faith leaders like Rabbi Melanie Aron and Rev. Nancy Palmer Jones, to the event so they could honor Ginsburg, a notable Jewish figure.
Palmer Jones expressed her admiration for the event and how it was organized, especially during the coronavirus pandemic.
“My favorite thing about it was that it was organized by the youth and led by the youth and that is so incredibly inspiring,” Palmer Jones said.
This is the first event held by the NAACP youth branch since the death of George Floyd on May 25. The organization was proud of the turnout of about 100 people, who also came to the first part of the event – a rally in favor of Proposition 16.
The NAACP youth branch members tracked this number by counting the number of covered social distancing squares placed on the ground by the youth branch. This was one of the many pandemic safety measures taken during the event. Other measures included giving out hand sanitizer and free reusable cloth face masks.
Jai Ramamurthy, a member of NAACP’s San Jose/Silicon Valley chapter youth branch, said the group really wanted to take these precautionary measures for the event and were glad to see that people were following them, even though it reduced the amount of active participation.
The vigil started right after the rally in favor of Proposition 16, which proposes a repeal of the ban on affirmative action in California and was planned “last minute” compared to the Breonna Taylor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg vigil. Originally, the vigil was only supposed to be for Ginsburg, until the details of the court’s decision about the detective charged for Breonna Taylor’s death came out on Sept. 23 and the group decided to honor her too, Dacallos said.
The beginning of the event was dedicated to remembering Ginsburg’s life and work. Conversely, those that spoke about Taylor focused on her “unjust” death. Several of the speakers had mentioned that it had been 197 days, at the time of the event, since her death.
“Just two days ago the only charges pressed against those officers were for the bullets that missed, those bullets that could have potentially hurt a white family, but not the ones that have torn a Black family forever,” Karrington Kenney, a member of Milpitas High School’s Black Student Union said.
A final prayer was given by Moore, the NAACP San Jose/Silicon Valley chapter president, at the end of the event. He encouraged attendees not just to pray for those who have lost someone this year, but to vote and call state officials in swing states.
“We keep your memories strong, we keep our beliefs strong,“ Moore said. “As we go forth to the ballot box, we know what we must do.”
