LOS ANGELES _ "All Black Lives Matter" was painted in a rainbow of colors along a stretch of Hollywood Boulevard in front of the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood on Saturday, one of the latest moves in ongoing protests over police brutality and the killing of George Floyd.
Hollywood Boulevard has been the scene of numerous protests in the last two weeks, including one last Sunday that drew more than 20,000 people. Another was planned.
The All Black Lives Matter march, organized by a Black Advisory Board made up of black LGBTQ+ leaders and organizations, was set to take place in West Hollywood. On the event's website, the board posted a statement announcing a protest "in direct response to racial injustice, systemic racism, and all forms of oppression."
Additional protests were scheduled across Los Angeles for Sunday _ the latest actions in a weekend of demonstrations.
On Saturday, more than a hundred congregants and friends of the Cochran Avenue Baptist Church marched through Mid-Wilshire protesting the treatment of black people across the country.
At one point, Pastor Charles Johnson asked the marchers to take a knee. He then led them in prayer.
"We pray for a public witness to all the injustice that's in our community," he said.
The marchers headed along San Vicente Boulevard, winding through residential streets with a stop in the neighborhood of Little Ethiopia. They were heading to the La Brea Tar Pits.
Antoinette Jordan, 50, marched alongside her boyfriend, Quinn. Jordan, who attends Cochran Avenue Baptist Church, said it was her third protest march. Throughout them, she's been thinking of her adult sons who are medical caregivers, she said. The last few months have been hard for them.
"You got COVID you gotta worry about," she said, "and then you gotta worry about being a Black man."
These demonstrations "help give people a voice," she said. "I learned: The louder you sing, the more audible you are, the better your message comes across."
Another march for racial justice took place in Echo Park on Saturday afternoon and drew more than 500 people.
