It was “the best of times and the worst of times.”

Those words from celebrated 19th-century author and social critic Charles Dickens aptly describe the prevailing climate at Sunday’s spirited march and rally in downtown Youngstown to protest the monstrous killing of George Floyd at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer 10 days ago.

That “March for Justice,” sponsored by the Mahoning Valley Sojourn to the Past civil rights organization, played out amid the disturbing clamor of a global health pandemic as well as Great Depression levels of joblessness. More importantly, it unfolded in the immediate aftermath of one of the most heinous examples of the worst in man’s inhumanity to man. That inhumanity, of course, was the abuse of power so clearly evident in the slow, painful and seemingly calculated asphyxiation death of the 46-year-old African-American man at the knees of Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin. On Tuesday, eight days after the attack, the Hennepin County Medical Examiner finally ruled Floyd’s death a homicide — a conclusion most in the crowd of about 1,000 Youngstown demonstrators instantaneously drew while viewing the cellphone video of the horrific crime.

Most participants, too, no doubt drew the same conclusion as Pope Francis did Wednesday, calling Floyd’s killing “tragic” and just one more example of “all those others who have lost their lives as a result of the sin of racism.”

Yet despite the anguishing purpose behind Sunday afternoon’s event, the march and protest under bright Sunday sunshine also shed light on some of the best traits in the American character. Prime among them, of course, is the right to meaningfully air legitimate grievances in a peaceful yet powerful and productive manner.

Take, for example, the size and composition of the crowd. The throngs that stepped out for the half-mile street demonstration and rally represented Mahoning Valley residents of all ages, races and backgrounds. That strength in diversity clearly sent a forceful message to change makers on the local, state and federal levels that senseless violence and hate must never be acceptable.

Take, too, the overall peaceful demeanor of the demonstrators. Unlike rallies in dozens of cities elsewhere in America in recent days, this protest generally lacked the counterproductive elements of looting, violence and arson. Such criminal antics effectively canceled out those other protests’ hoped-for messages of nonviolence and compassion.

Finally, take the quality and experience of the leadership behind Sunday’s “March for Justice.” For well over the past decade, Sojourn to the Past has been evolving into one of our community’s and our state’s most resonant voices for nonviolence, civil rights and social justice. The program that grew out of a Youngstown City Schools’ American history program under the passionate leadership of Penny Wells takes students on tours of civil-rights battlegrounds throughout the South each year to gain lessons from the past.

It has also become a statewide champion for nonviolence. The group successfully lobbied the Ohio General Assembly in 2013 to formally recognize the first full week in October as Nonviolence Week throughout the state.

Sonya Lenoir, a 2018 graduate of Youngstown Rayen Early College High School, stands out as a veteran foot soldier in the Sojourn movement and was a lead organizer of the march.

“Everybody’s angry, but we must express it the right way,” Lenoir told the crowd before Sunday’s march began. “We’re here to honor the lives taken.”

In so doing, Lenoir and the hundreds of others on the streets and thousands of others with them in spirit in our community sent a forceful message that the injustices against Floyd also mirror the injustices of racism and hate that continue to scar the American way.

We congratulate Sojourn on its success this week and look forward to its continued active and responsible social-justice leadership. We’re also confident it can further build up Youngstown — once best known as a hotbed of mob violence, race riots and gang-banging street wars — into the hub of a respected statewide movement predicated on peace and nonviolence.

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