MADISON, Wis. (AP) - A crowd demonstrating for racial justice blocked traffic, but otherwise remained relatively peaceful in downtown Madison.
The protest Wednesday night was the fourth night of demonstrations following the shooting of Jacob Blake by a police officer in Kenosha. The crowd of 250 to 300 walked downtown streets chanting, giving speeches and urging onlookers in student apartment building to join them.
The protest was in contrast to three previous nights when demonstrations turned destructive with some people shattering windows, lighting fires and looting stores.
One of the demonstrators was Althea Bernstein, the 18-year-old Black woman who was lit on fire as she sat in her car at a Madison intersection waiting for the light to change in June. Bernstein told police a group of white men squirted lighter fluid in her face and ignited it. Police have released little information about the attack.
Bernstein said she only recently returned downtown to protest and that it felt empowering, the State Journal reported.
“It’s been mentally exhausting. There’s good days and bad days,” Bernstein told the crowd. “I realized I need to be down here. I’m an EMT, I’m here for medical service. Does my skin color offend you? Does my success scare you? Does the fact that I’m a Black woman make you worried that change in going to happen?”
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