Every day this month there has been a Black Lives Matter march in St. Petersburg, Tampa or other parts of the Tampa Bay area – and on the weekends, quite a few. On Wednesday, lawyers are organizing a march of their own and inviting others to join in.
Robert Shimberg is helping to organize the Lawyers March for Equal Justice.
“Lawyers are marching Wednesday for equal justice as the Hillsborough County Bar Association and a number of other voluntary bar associations in the Tampa area are sponsoring a march for equal justice, which is the primary tenet of the practice of law. We as lawyers, as guardians of equal justice in the American system, felt like it was very important particularly at this time to march and it’s important to us to be able to state that black lives matter. And it’s our duty to make sure that’s always the case in the American justice system.”
Where will you be marching?
“We’ll be marching starting at the George Edgecomb Courthouse on Twiggs Street in downtown Tampa. We will have a short program there where we’ll have just a couple of speakers that will talk and we’ll be starting at 5 p.m on Wednesday. We’ll go from there to the Sam Gibbons Federal Courthouse. We’ll loop around the Sam Gibbons Federal Courthouse and end up back at the George Edgecomb Courthouse so it’s just a little under a mile march.”
There are concerns about large gatherings. Are you taking any precautions for COVID-19?
“Absolutely. We’ve asked everyone that’s participating in our march to wear a face covering that day. We’ll also be providing face coverings for people that will be marching. So absolutely.”
Is there anything else that our listeners should know about your march and why you’re doing it? Anything else you’d like to add?
“We’d like to invite all of your listeners to join us as we march for equal justice. We as lawyers and we as Americans believe that’s really one of the most fundamental and important rights and privileges that we have as Americans. And so we’d love for the entire community to join us at the George Edgecomb Courthouse in downtown Tampa on Twiggs St., Wednesday at 5:00 p.m. as we gather and march for equal justice.”
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