The Motorcade for Nonviolence makes its way down Oxford Road shortly after departing the armory parking lot Saturday afternoon.
The Motorcade for Nonviolence snaked through and beyond Henderson’s four wards Saturday afternoon with 29 cars and six motorcycles.
“I thought it was an excellent demonstration,” said Cathy Ringley, who organized the motorcade with fellow Vance County Coalition Against Violence member Evelyn Mitchell. “The wide cross section of people was refreshing.”
Ringley said the participants were not just the usual coalition members. “There were a lot of people there who wanted to be there from the heart.”
Horace Bullock, left, Danny Wright, Elissa Yount, Mary Emma Evans and Cornell Manning await the start of the motorcade outside the armory.
The group included Vance County Commissioner Danny Wright and Henderson City Council members Mary Emma Evans and Elissa Yount.
The motorcade gets rolling; 35 vehicles participated.
Starting at 3 p.m. at the old armory on Dabney Drive, the group spent more than an hour visiting the good and bad of Henderson, from the mansions of the country club area to the shacks of Orange and David streets.
Motorcade participants got to see such graffiti on David Street before a Community Development Block Grant project cleans up a two-block stretch of the North Henderson road.
The effects of crime arguably left marks throughout the route, from for-sale signs in West Henderson to boarded-up houses in South Henderson to graffiti in North Henderson.
City residents along the motorcade route generally offered a warm reception, and many seemed surprised to see the anti-violence parade.
“We definitely raised a lot of interest by people that we were parading past in the community,” Ringley said.
She said it’s too soon to know whether the motorcade will be a one-time event or how participants will respond to what they saw. But the motorcade itself was a success, Ringley said. “I was pleased with the outcome.”