Correspondent photos / Sean Barron Members of Mahoning Valley Sojourn to the Past lead Sunday’s 15th annual Nonviolence Parade and Rally through downtown Youngstown to the Youngstown Foundation Amphitheatre. The event kicked off Nonviolence Week locally and statewide.

YOUNGSTOWN — Vera Little cherishes the memory of her nephew’s habit of arriving at her home between 8 and 10 a.m. daily.

“Every morning he’d say, ‘Aunt Mae Mae, I’m here,'” Little, of Youngstown, recalled.

For five years, however, she has missed the familiar sound of her nephew Quincy E. Little Sr.’s knock and, more importantly, his presence in her life as well as the lives of his three young children.

That’s because Little, 27, was shot to death Oct. 5, 2020, in a vehicle on Woodland Avenue in Campbell. In December 2020, a Mahoning County grand jury dismissed murder charges against the suspect, Charles Jennings of Youngstown.

Little was among those who lost their lives to violence who were remembered and honored during the 15th annual Nonviolence Parade and Rally on Sunday that began at Wood Street and Wick Avenue near downtown and proceeded to the Youngstown Foundation Amphitheatre for a one-hour program.

Several hundred attended the peaceful gathering that kicked off Nonviolence Week locally and statewide. Hosting the event was Mahoning Valley Sojourn to the Past.

“I miss him and love him to death,” Vera Little said about her nephew.

Quincy Little was a Campbell Memorial High School graduate who played football on his school’s team and for the Eastside Titans (formerly the Panthers). He also was a forklift operator in the construction industry and attended Gospel Temple Baptist Church in Campbell, according to his obituary.

Additional groups and organizations that participated in the parade included First Presbyterian Church of Youngstown, the Alliance for Congregational Transformation Influencing Our Neighborhoods (ACTION), the Youngstown Area Jewish Federation, the Junior Civic League of Youngstown, Church Hill United Methodist Church and the Mahoning County Prosecutor’s Office. Numerous cheerleading squads and athletes from Youngstown State University and area high schools also took part.

The keynote speaker at the amphitheater was Minnijean Brown Trickey of Vancouver, British Columbia, one of nine black students who integrated the all-white Central High School in September 1957 in Little Rock, Arkansas, and paid a high price for her courage in helping to break segregation.

“I have to tell you, I come for inspiration. I need it at (age) 84; I need to get some inspiration, and I count on you to give it to me,” Brown Trickey said in her remarks that were preceded by a standing ovation.

Brown Trickey, who has spent her life as a social justice activist, environmentalist, civil rights icon and advocate for peace, told her mostly young audience that she spoke in 93 schools last year in New Zealand. Each time, she mentioned to those students and staff how the young people she’s met in Youngstown have impacted her, Brown Trickey said.

The school desegregation crisis in Little Rock 68 years ago was largely about violence, intolerance and hate, though with today’s political divisiveness, hatred and turmoil, “when I wake up, I can’t tell if I’m in 1957 or 2025. It’s a national tragedy,” she added.

Many of today’s political leaders are poor role models, so it’s that much more important to listen to young people, Brown Trickey continued.

Perhaps one of the most moving parts of Sunday’s gathering was a spoken word portion in which Chaney High School seniors Lil Snider, Yoad Rodriguez-Lopez and Sonny Seninsky read narratives that described the lives and circumstances surrounding many of those who lost their lives to violence.

Specifically, the three of them honored Persayus Chanell Davis-May, 10; Isaiah Walker, 16; Matthew Burroughs, 35; Jamael Johnson, 25; Landon Lockhart, 14; Eric Gibbs, 42; Tariq Morris, 3 months; Tariq’s parents, Valarcia Blair, 19, and Edward Morris, 21; Reshaud Biggs Jr., 17; Keimone Black, 29; Walter Kornegay, 36; and Keondre Lewis, 19.

“When are these senseless killings going to end?” Snider said.

She also encouraged audience members to call out names of additional loved ones whose lives were taken by violence.

Rodriguez-Lopez read aloud Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s six principles of nonviolence, which state that the philosophy is a way of life for courageous people, seeks to win friendship and understanding, aims to defeat injustices instead of people, holds that suffering can educate and transform, chooses love instead of hate and believes the universe is on the side of justice.

Listening to others before speaking, caring for one’s neighbor and displaying love instead of hate are among the countless ways to promote peace, he said.

In addition, King laid out a six-step blueprint for reaching nonviolent social change that consists of information gathering, education, a personal commitment, discussion and negotiation, direct action and reconciliation.

Also during the program, the Rev. J.P. Robles, Sacred Commons Church’s co-pastor, said a series of prayers and led his audience in a call-and-response manner, to which they responded with “Let it begin with me.”

Afterward, seven children held candles as they sang on the stage, “Light a Candle” in which they called for peace, unity and love.

Also, several people affixed messages to a board on which was written “My dream for peace.” Among them were “Have courage to fight tyranny wherever, whenever,” “Increased awareness of mental health for people of color” and “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free. Down with Apartheid!”

After the program, Sidonie Little-Williams displayed a photograph on her cellphone of her late cousin and expressed gratitude that the Nonviolence Parade and Rally seeks to tackle the type of violence that took his life. Dealing with the loss and grief, though, remains a process, she said.

“Every day is a journey,” Little-Williams said.