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First they grieved. Then they marched. 

More than a month after their protests in Syracuse concluded, Last Chance for Change organizers are trying to help the local community heal.

The organization — which formed in the wake of George Floyd’s alleged murder by Minneapolis police and went on to lead 40 days of protests in the city of Syracuse — has shifted its efforts to supporting the local community, all while continuing to push for systemic change. 

The group now cleans the city and brings meals to people experiencing homelessness in Syracuse, said Nathaniel Flagg, a Syracuse native and a founder of Last Chance for Change.

“We’re doing this because we actually care about the community and we want to help,” Flagg said. “We want to bring the joy and smiles back to people’s faces. Joy has been literally stripped from this community.”

Last Chance for Change marched across the city peacefully for 40 days, including on Syracuse University’s campus and past the home of Chancellor Kent Syverud. The activist organization was also one of 15 to sign the People’s Agenda for Police Reform, a series of demands to reform the Syracuse Police Department that Mayor Ben Walsh partially agreed to in July.

About a month after the marches concluded, Last Chance for Change’s 10 core organizers still gather to address the conditions—including police brutality, systemic racism and the disproportionate impact of the coronavirus pandemic on Black people and people of color—that sparked a wave of protests across the country this summer.

Protesting with Last Chance for Change was a cathartic experience, said Zahabu Gentille Rukera, a Syracuse native and a senior at SU who joined the organizers early on.

Last Chance for Change marched across the city peacefully for 40 days, including on Syracuse University’s campus and past the home of Chancellor Kent Syverud. Emma Folts | Managing Editor

“This is my home and that’s why I was protesting,” Rukera said. “My initial reasoning for going was that I knew that (police brutality) was happening in Syracuse as well.”

Protesters began to see each other as family as the marches wore on, Rukera said. As the protests became part of her daily routine, she began looking forward to seeing old and new faces each day.

Rukera was excited to be part of the movement, but sometimes felt she wasn’t doing enough. Reports of more Black Americans dying in police custody have helped organizers, including herself, realize the importance of their work, which she said came at a personal cost to many Last Chance for Change members.

Several protesters gave up their jobs to march with Last Chance for Change, she said. Rukera gave up an internship to do the same.

“I had moments where I was frustrated because I had sacrificed a lot,” she said. “But I also know they was necessary, and I had to be there and it was like my true calling. And it didn’t feel right if I had given up.” 

Flagg decided to help create Last Chance for Change because he had seen the damage that violence, racism and police brutality had done to his community.  

“I, personally, am sick of burying my friends and my family,” Flagg said. “It’s sickening. I have said goodbye more than I have said hello to anybody. And I’m tired.” 

Dramar Felton, a Last Chance for Chance organizer from Syracuse, said the protests also transformed his life. In the past, Felton had perpetrated violence in the city as a gang member and drug dealer, he said. 

Felton stood before the protesters at each march. His presence on the protest’s front lines was a way of showing the community that everyone can change, he said. 

“I’m able to give back to the community that I took from,” Felton said. “I was able to show my strength of what Syracuse built me into to give to Last Chance for Change and say, ‘Hey, listen, I’m not only respected in a negative way.’” 

Last Chance for Chance is now focusing on organizing community events. The group most recently held an event for children in the Eastside on Aug. 21. 

Rukera is firmly invested in the group’s pursuit of action to improve Syracuse from within, but everyone in the city must share that responsibility, she said.

“One thing that I want people to know is that Last Chance for Change is strong and we will prevail in any struggles that we encounter,” Rukera said. “The work that we’re doing is beyond any of us and is beyond all of us combined. It’s work that’s necessary and that was needed for a long time.” 

The changes Last Chance for Change organizers want to see in Syracuse may not be immediate, Rukera and Flagg said. But Flagg hopes Last Chance for Change will leave a meaningful legacy in Syracuse.

“We chant and shout the names of people who died all over that was Black, white, male, female, who lost their lives to police brutality,” Flagg said. “Their lives matter just as much as ours. But we have to make sure that our city is straight before we worry about what’s going on in somebody else’s city.”

Flagg hopes to march again in the future. Rukera wants to organize another protest for Jacob Blake, a Black man who police shot in the back multiple times in Kenosha, Wisconsin on Sunday.

Ultimately, Flagg wants the city to know that Last Chance for Change organizers are just trying to make a difference, he said.

“None of us are angry Black men,” he said. “None of us are angry Black women. We’re all humble, broken people building each other up as we build up our community.”

Published on August 26, 2020 at 11:49 pm

Contact Marnie: ammunozc@syr.edu