By Josh Resnek
Everett High School students organized and marched on city hall Monday afternoon, leaving school en masse from the high school before dismissal and marching up Broadway in unison to Everett City Hall carrying placards.
In front of city hall, about 400 students chanting “enough is enough” and “the mayor has got to go,” shut down city hall and for a short period of time, owned a territory of the city that is generally opposed to their presence, and to their cries for equal treatment.
It was an incredible scene given the circumstances of the day.
Two Everett public officials involved in overt racist acts resigned their positions.
Councilor Anthony DiPierro and the mayor’s communications chief Deanna Deveney had resigned two hours before the kids descended on City Hall.
They were found to have sent out racist memes, used the N-word and Deveney referred to Black people as “darkies.”
For almost 7 weeks they defied citywide calls to step down.
No Everett elected public officials except for Councilor Mike Marchese demanded their resignations.
The moment presented an incredible spectacle and not without its ironic twists.
The kids, mostly Black and Brown people, from the high school, which is predominately non-white, chanted for an end to racism in Everett, run mostly by white people who they believe don’t give a damn.
Mayor Carlo DeMaria was nowhere to be seen.
Inside city hall, through an open window on the third floor, unknown officials took photographs of the crowd below with telephoto lenses.
The protest lasted about an hour and a half.
It was monitored closely by the Everett Police.
No incidents were reported.
The event was widely covered by a phalanx of Greater Boston media.
The protest conceived by the school department’s Chief Equity Officer Cory McCarthy, perhaps the most outspoken supporter for Black peoples’ rights in Everett, ignited a wildfire of interest for the traffic moving by the city hall up and down Broadway.
Onlooker expressed amazement.
Many passersby in their automobiles honked their horns or shouted their support from open windows.
“I am so proud of these Everett High School kids taking control of their lives and fighting for what is theirs. This is a city where the elected public officials turn a blind eye to calls for change,” McCarthy told the Leader Herald.
“This is a triumphant moment of change for race relations in Everett,” he added.
Hundreds of kids chanted boisterously and waved their placards.
In terms of Everett’s modern racial history, this was a seminal moment.