By Ni’Jah Richardson

“I can’t breathe!” “no justice no peace!” “hands up don’t shoot” and “black lives matter!” chanted 15 DSU students early Saturday morning on December 6th, as they marched seven miles down N. Dupont Highway, and made their way through downtown Dover.

“We were stopped in the first five minutes we were walking,” said freshman Kym Bethea.

The Dover police stopped the protestors at a nearby gas station and informed the students that there had been complaints that the signs they were holding were distracting the drivers.

Although told to turn the signs around, the students marched on with their signs.

“There were so many people who stopped to read the signs, literally slowed down traffic to read our signs,” said freshman Yasmeen Mighty.

The students received reactions from many of the drivers and people walking by.

“Some honked in approval of our movement, and some looked on disapprovingly, but we did receive several Black power fists and one woman even gave us an umbrella,” said freshman Shamar Amison.

Students say they were all afraid when a woman and her husband pulled up to them as they marched in the pouring rain and gave them an umbrella.

“I jumped when she held the umbrella out towards us, my first thought was that it was a gun,” said Kym Bethea.

Kimberly Jivers, the protest organizer, said that she was shocked that so many people supported their movement.

“Many people warned me that this would be an emotional experience, and to be careful so I was nervous, but nevertheless the people of Dover seemed to be on our side,” said Jivers.

Although the protest was small in number, the message was powerful.

However many wondered where were all the Black men as most of the protestors were female.

“I mean they’re killing us too, but they are mostly killing our Black men, I expected more of them to be here” said Bethea.