Hundreds of people took to Aberystwyth promenade this evening for a socially distanced Black Lives Matter protest, after the death of George Floyd.

The Black Lives Matter protest took place on Thursday evening, 4 June, from 6pm to 7pm on South Beach, Aberystwyth. The protest was a peaceful, sit-down event, allowing people to socially distance.

Organisers took turns to share the message of Black Lives Matter and the protestors kept silent for eight minutes and 46 seconds, the exact time that George Floyd was held to the ground by a white police officer.

One speaker told the crowd: “To be black in the UK is not to be shackled to the system, is not to be under oppression, it is to be free. We are UK citizens just like you. We are just like you. We are you.

“Black lives matter and they always will.”

Protests were sparked across the USA and worldwide after the death of George Floyd on 25 May.

George Floyd, a black man, died in Minneapolis, US, after Derek Chauvin, a white police officer, pressed his knee to Floyd’s neck for almost nine minutes while he was handcuffed face down in the street.

Black Lives Matter was founded in 2013 and aims to eradicate white supremacy and build local power to intervene in violence inflicted on Black communities by the state and vigilantes.

Rosedona Williams, one of the organisers of the Aberystwyth protest, said: “We have decided to carry out this protest to support the Black Lives Matter movement and stand against the systemic racism and police brutality that black people have been experiencing over hundreds of years."

For those who couldn’t attend the protest, Rosedona encouraged them to sign petitions, donate to causes supporting black people, to show solidarity on social media, and educate themselves on “systemic racism and police brutality” toward black people.