Blog Posts

HUNDREDS PROTEST PRESIDENT TRUMP’S MANKATO VISIT: ‘THIS IS RURAL AMERICA’

8/17/2020

MANKATO, Minn. — Hours before the start of the virtual Democratic National Convention, President Donald Trump paid an in-person visit to Mankato Regional Airport on Monday, kicking off a multi-stop effort to paint the Midwest red in November’s election. While his hour-long speech received only cheers from a crowd restricted to local backers and fans outfitted with “Trump” face masks, his welcome around town was far more mixed.

Earlier in the day, while Trump addressed another private crowd in Minneapolis, some 600 community members lined Veterans Memorial Bridge, in the heart of the downtown district, to proclaim their opposition to the president’s outreach.

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Thousands March for George Floyd, Protest Racial Injustice in Southern Minnesota |Cody Benjamin

6/1/2020

MANKATO, Minn. — Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. opined in his famous 1963 Letter from Birmingham Jail that there is no such thing as a perfect time to protest racial injustice.

“For years now,” King wrote, “I have heard the word, ‘Wait!’ It rings in the ear of every Negro with piercing familiarity. This ‘Wait’ has almost always meant, ‘Never.’ We must come to see …a that justice too long delayed is justice denied.”

Nearly 60 years later, Southern Minnesota did not wait to demand justice following the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Within three days of the 46-year-old black man’s death at the hands of a white police officer, both Mankato and St. Peter had joined a national wave of resistance. Roughly 80 miles from the street where Floyd’s neck was pinned down by Derek Chauvin’s knee, thousands marched over bridges, into parks and through city squares, braving the COVID-19 pandemic to call out police brutality, systemic racism and the senseless loss of another darker-skinned human being.

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About 500 gather in St. Peter to call for 'Justice for George Floyd' | St. Peter Herald

6/1/2020

Armed with only face masks and signs, hundreds of protesters joined together in and around Minnesota Square Park in St. Peter Thursday, calling for "Justice for George Floyd."

"What I wanted is to keep the emphasize on George Floyd," said Bukata Hayes, executive director of the Greater Mankato Diversity Council, which covers Blue Earth, Nicollet and Region Nine counties. "I think his life was unnecessarily taken. It’s times like these, where we have to take an accounting, look around, move forward together and clearly address what happened. So this was our part to support a community that is mourning, that is hurt and looking for assistance in finding a way forward."

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Protesters unite, rally for social change (video) | Mankato Free Press

5/29/2020

With a fist clenched tightly around the grip of a bullhorn, Jim Dimock paces like a lion across the sidewalks of Veterans Memorial Bridge Friday.

He shouts, “Show ‘em what democracy looks like!”

The crowd, spanning the full length of the bridge, shouts back, “This is what democracy looks like!

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Justice for George Floyd vigil held in St. Peter | KEYC

5/28/2020

ST. PETER, Minn. (KEYC) - A vigil was held in St. Peter along Highway 169 Thursday for George Floyd - the man who died following an arrest by Minneapolis Police.

Despite loud honks from passing cars, the vigil was peaceful and residents from surrounding communities converged on Memorial Square park to have their voice heard.

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Hundreds protest in St. Peter over the death of George Floyd | Mankato Free Press

5/28/2020

ST. PETER — Drivers passing by in their vehicles waved and honked in approval as nearly 300 protesters rallied in St. Peter against the death of George Floyd, who died Monday night while in police custody in Minneapolis.

“We come to support George Floyd,” said Josefina Flandes of Mankato. “We want justice and we want these people in jail.”

The incident, captured on video and posted on social media, shows Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin pinning his knee on Floyd’s neck, who repeatedly says he can’t breathe and later loses consciousness. Chauvin and the other officers ignored pleas by bystanders to check Floyd’s pulse before he’s taken away in an ambulance and is later pronounced dead.

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Indivisible St. Peter/Greater Mankato rally for affordable health care | KEYC

9/26/2019

MANKATO, Minn. (KEYC) — Indivisible St. Peter/Greater Mankato Health Care rallied outside Representative Jim Hagedorn’s office at Jackson Street Park Thursday.

They’ve been meeting there every week to rally for issues like health care and climate change.

Community members shared their stories about their struggle to afford health care.

Organizer Yurie Hong said the group doesn't endorse a specific policy like medicare for all, but hopes their local representatives like Hagedorn listen to constituents about their needs when it comes to health care.

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Climate activists think local amid global protests | Mankato Free Press

9/20/2019

While millions gathered across the globe Friday to protest inaction on climate change, activists in Mankato and St. Peter demonstrated how to get involved in local solutions.

The Global Climate Strike prompted student walk-outs and mass marches in numerous major cities across the U.S. and other countries. The coordinated protests came in advance of the United Nations’ 2019 Climate Action Summit starting Monday.

Area groups participated by organizing educational programs and street clean-ups in Mankato, all leading into a spirited rally in St. Peter’s Minnesota Square Park.

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Minnesota U.S. Rep. Hagedorn no longer to meet with left-leaning group | The Globe

7/19/2019

ROCHESTER, Minn. — U.S. Republican Rep. Jim Hagedorn is withdrawing the welcome mat for members of at least one left-leaning group. The first-term congressman from the First District said this week that his Minnesota office staff would no longer hold in-person meetings with members of the liberal group Indivisible.

Hagedorn came to the decision, a letter to the group states, after one of the leaders of the St. Peter and Greater Mankato Indivisible group said the visits were designed to distract staff from attending to other work.

"This is disappointing, especially coming from a group that claims to be dedicated to making people's lives better," Hagedorn said in the letter.

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