Black Lives Matter sign stolen for fourth time
APPLETON - The Rev. Kathleen Rolenz is losing count.
Her Fox Valley Unitarian Universalist Fellowship will have to put up its fifth Black Lives Matter sign after the banner was stolen again over the weekend.
Besides the sign along Calumet Street being vandalized and repeatedly stolen, the fellowship has received hate mail for its public support of the Black Lives Matter movement, Rolenz said.
She said the fellowship, which has a mostly white congregation that stands in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement, has displayed the banners since February 2015, and recently began handing out personal signs as well.
A protest to raise awareness is being planned for Thursday afternoon at the site where the banner hangs.
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Like the last time the banner was stolen, this theft comes shortly after police killings of black men and subsequent protests. Tulsa police officer Betty Jo Shelby was charged with manslaughter in the Sept. 16 killing of Terence Crutcher, who was unarmed. Four days after the Tulsa shooting, Charlotte, N.C., officers shot and killed Keith Lamont Scott, who police say had a gun. For both cities, protests have grown in response.
"We all know that this is just a banner, but it is symbolic of something," said Kathy Flores, a leader of the Fox Valley chapter of Showing Up for Racial Justice. "And for us, we know that black bodies in this country are experiencing violence at a rate that is unfathomable. And so for us to see this banner continue to get stolen tells us that we have some work to do in this community."
The latest theft happened between 11 p.m. Friday and 6:30 a.m. Saturday.
This time, Showing Up for Racial Justice is responding with a demonstration from 4 to 6 p.m. Thursday along the stretch of Calumet Street in Appleton where the sign has been displayed. The hope is to raise awareness and money for the national Black Lives Matter organization, Flores said. Demonstrators will hold signs and collect donations outside of the fellowship, 2600 Philip Lane.
Anyone supporting Black Lives Matter and frustrated by the repeated thefts of the banner is welcome to join, Flores said. The demonstration will take place on the sidewalk in front of the fellowship. Access to the parking lot is off of Philips Lane.
"It's very key to the work of white people to help fund this civil rights moment, and that's what we're doing," Flores said.
Rolenz said she hopes motorists see the demonstrators and signs, pull into the fellowship parking lot and have a dialogue, "to understand particularly why there's such a different narrative coming from communities of color, particularly around interactions with police," she said. "I think it's particularly hard for well-meaning white people to understand why people of color have such a different experience."
In response to the refrain that "all lives matter," Rolenz said she's considering a different kind of sign for the fifth version: "All lives will matter when Black Lives Matter."
The Appleton fellowship isn't alone in its banner backlash — suspects have stolen and vandalized signs at Unitarian Universalist organizations in New Hampshire, Delaware, Idaho and elsewhere, according to the Unitarian Universalist Association.
"Some congregations have had it worse; we're only at four or five (signs)," Rolenz said.
Rolenz told the congregation at the 9 a.m. Sunday service about the theft — and that the fellowship would replace the banner.
"The congregation broke out into applause," she said.
Katherine Lymn: 920-996-7232, or klymn@gannett.com; on Twitter @kathlymn