Black Rights Coalition Blocks Traffic With 'Counter-Inauguration' In Madison Wisconsin

More power to these protesters in the brutal cold





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Protesters with the coalition Young, Gifted and Black marched to the top of State Street as part of a "counter-inauguration" on Monday. Photo: Gilman Halsted/WPR News.


Black Rights Coalition Blocks Traffic With 'Counter-Inauguration' In Madison
Protesters Also Take Stand Against Proposed Dane County Jail Renovation


Monday, January 5, 2015, 1:25pm
By Gilman Halsted

A Madison-based coalition called Young Gifted and Black held a counter-inauguration at the state Capitol on Monday to call for radical changes in the state's policing and criminal justice policies.

A group of about 50 protesters in the middle of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard blocked traffic while holding a banner that read “Black Lives Matter” before marching around the Capitol Square. Organizer Brandi Grayson said the group believes Gov. Scott Walker's policies are contributing to poverty and violence in poor black communities.

“We are inaugurating ourselves as freedom fighters for the black liberation movement,” said Grayson. “We are here to take power back from the state and switch it to our communities. We will not continue to allow state violence against people of color and poor people.”


The group also presented a list to Dane County Executive Joe Parisi and Madison Mayor Paul Soglin demanding that funds earmarked for renovating the county jail be used instead to fund programs in the city’s poor neighborhoods......






The Young, Gifted and Black coalition also led a protest on Madison's north side on Saturday. Photo: Gilman Halsted/WPR News.