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TERRE HAUTE More than 150 people gathered in socially distanced groups on blankets and lawn chairs near the arch in Terre Hautes Fairbanks Park for a Community Talkback session on Thursday night in light of the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police and the protests that have swept the country since.

Rev. Terry Clark added historical context for the current events going on in the country during Thursdays Community Talk Back at Fairbanks Park.

Dominique Morefield, one of the organizers, said the goal is real tangible change to build on the momentum of the Black Lives Matter movement that is happening across the country right now. We want to effect real policy (change) in our community because policies that help the black community help the whole community.

A few minutes before the event got started around 7 p.m., Morefield and fellow organizer Isaac Wonderlin said they were very happy with the turnout, as they with the help of Emma Crossen, Tess Brooks Stephens and others got word out mainly through word of mouth and social media.

Featured speaker the Rev. Terry Clark, a Baptist minister and instructor in African American Studies at Indiana State University, kicked off the event.

Protests and that awful R word (riot) may frighten some, but Clark sought to put those terms in the context of American history, noting the country was born from protest and even at least one very famous riot the Boston Tea Party.

They looted those ships and threw chests of tea into the harbor, Clark said.

Clark also dispelled the narrative that riots are or were a black-on-white phenomena, discussing well-documented white-on-black rioting and lynchings over false rape allegations and even over disputes between white and black grocers.

The pastor and teacher was not encouraging violence and noted the lessons from the 1960 Woolworths lunch counter sit-in in Greensboro, North Carolina, in which four young African American men held their ground without striking back despite being verbally and physically assaulted.

They took their seats knowing what was to come and prepared to not meet violence with violence. Though they were cursed, insulted and attacked, they could not be moved, Clark said.

Dissent and protest often does precede change, Clark said, and the country again finds itself at a pivotal moment because the 8 minutes and 46 seconds that Officer Derek Chauvin knelt on the neck of George Floyd have changed America.

People are taking to the streets, Clark said, because black lives matter, and one cannot say all lives matter without acknowledging that black lives matter.

Making jokes about his own age, Clark aimed much of his talk at young people in the audience, because you deserve to be heard. And, he said, There are people, believe it or not, who are beginning to listen.

But the struggle is not new and the effort will be neither brief nor easy, Clark said. He referred to the late 1960s, when the Kerner Commission a presidential panel on civil disorders reported that riots were stemming from black Americans frustration with a lack of economic opportunity.

That commission famously warned Our nation is moving toward two societies, one black, one white separate and unequal.

The Black Lives Matter movement again brought to the forefront of the nations attention must continue, Clark said, because being heard isnt enough.

Whether it takes demonstrations, boycotts, protests, sit-ins or sitdowns, African Americans and their allies must continue to push until they are not only listened to from the outside, but invited inside to begin reform and to change law, Clark said.

After Clark, some of the protesters arrested near the Vigo County Courthouse on Third Street in Terre Haute early Monday, had a chance to talk to the crowd, and others would be invited to share with the audience experiences they have had with police, prosecutors and judges.

Media, however, was asked to leave or to not record the speakers whod been arrested.

Before he turned over the microphone, the Rev. Clark did tell the crowd the movements goals should not include ending policing, only bad policing.

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Being heard isn't enough: Speaker reminds Terre Haute audience reform is the goal - The Herald Bulletin