Nashville Black Lives Matter vigil turns into march that shuts down Broadway

More than a thousand people stood together crying, shouting and praying at a vigil in front of Nashville City Hall followed by a march that closed Broadway downtown Friday evening.

"We need to address the brutal legacy of white supremacy," Keith Caldwell, a local pastor and community organizer, said at the vigil.

Black Lives Matter Nashville organized the vigil and protest in response to the two black men who were fatally shot by police this week —  Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, La, and Philando Castile in Falcon Heights, Minn.

"We don't have to grieve alone," BLMN organizer Joshua Crutchfield said, leading the diverse group of participants in a repeat-after-me chant. "This is a liberated space. We come to this space to get free."

Speakers at the vigil accused Metro Nashville police of racial profiling and biased policing in neighborhoods with large minority populations. They demanded voting rights returned to felons and affordable housing and spoke out against racism, transphobia and homophobia.

The vigil comes as questions and anger are bubbling up again nationwide over the shootings, and the U.S. Justice Department's Civil Rights division took over the investigation Wednesday of a fatal shooting — captured on at least two graphic videos — of Sterling, 37, by two Baton Rouge police officers.

In an unrelated shooting captured on video Wednesday, 32-year-old Castile was shot by police in Falcon Heights during a traffic stop while reaching for his driver's license.

But in the wake of the Dallas protest Thursday night over the same two shootings where five police officers were killed and another seven were wounded by a sniper, there was a heavier than usual police presence, police said.

Additionally, a man opened fire on a highway in Bristol, targeting police and others because of incidents involving black people and law enforcement, according to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.

At the vigil, organizers took it upon themselves to make sure no one would get hurt. Several people in orange traffic vests on the safety team were there to prevent negative interactions with police and appeared to outnumber officers in the plaza.

Will York, a lawyer at Ozment Law in Nashville, and about nine others donned fluorescent green hats or tape designating them as a National Lawyers Guild Legal Observer.

The group, which included lawyers with the Nashville Public Defender’s Office, volunteered to observe the vigil and protest to make sure there were no negative interactions with police and people’s rights were not violated.

“Our sole job is to be a witness to any police misconduct,” he said. “We’re here to police the police and make sure the police are not trampling over civil liberties."

Police were there to ensure the same. They stood outside the vigil circle and closed streets downtown to allow marchers to pass.

"We have such a great rapport with the community that people come up to us and thank us for what we do," Capt. John Drake said at the vigil. "Our hearts go out to, one, the citizen in Baton Rouge, the citizen in Minnesota but also to the five police officers that lost their lives as well."

Drake noted that the shootings effect more than just the people involved, but their families as well.

After the vigil, BLMN organizer Jessica Sutton told people they were already courageous for coming out and that they were free to leave if they didn't want to march through the streets. To all those staying, Sutton promised to shut Broadway down. And then they did.

Protesters kept going despite 60 mph winds. It was pouring rain as the group passed a honky-tonk belting the lyrics, "I love a rainy night."

The march stopped in front of the Metropolitan Justice Center on James Robertson Parkway and then returned to city hall where it ended peacefully. The vigil and march combined lasted about three hours.

Javier Cortez and USA Today contributed to this report.

You can reach Ariana Sawyer at 615-815-5933 or on Twitter @a_maia_sawyer. You can reach Stacey Barchenger at 615-887-1619 or on Twitter @sbarchenger.