Standing shoulder to shoulder with heads bowed in prayer at Thursday’s solidarity march are Santa Maria-Lompoc NAACP leader Lawanda Lyons-Pruitt and pastor Tim Mossholder from Santa Maria Foursquare Church. 
Congressman Salud Carbajal, D-Santa Barbara, speaks during a solidary rally Thursday in Santa Maria. 
Lawanda Lyons-Pruitt, president of the Santa Maria-Lompoc branch of the NAACP, talks during a solidary rally in Santa Maria on Thursday night. 
Lawanda Lyons-Pruitt of the Santa Maria-Lompoc NAACP listens as Allan Hancock College Superintendent/President Kevin Walthers speaks Thursday during a solidarity rally. 
Congressman Salud Carbajal and Santa Barbara County Fifth District Supervisor Steve Lavagnino prepare to march during an event organized by the NAACP’s Santa Maria-Lompoc chapter. 
Participants begin the solidarity march Thursday in Santa Maria. 
Hundreds of participants begin to march Thursday in Santa Maria.
A leader declared “enough is enough” as hundreds of people, representing all races and ages, gathered at Santa Maria City Hall on Thursday for a peaceful Social Justice Solidarity March and Rally.
The Santa Maria-Lompoc branch of the NAACP organized the peaceful march on Thursday night with separate events in both communities.
Photos of George Floyd, who was killed by Minneapolis police last month, were displayed on a table near the podium along with a wreath, a vase of flowers and a candle, putting a face to the most recent black man to die during an encounter with law enforcement officers.
Uprisings seen across the country stem from years of frustration that change won’t happen, according to Lawanda Lyons-Pruitt, president of the Santa Maria-Lompoc branch of the NAACP.
“Enough is enough,” Lyons-Pruitt said. “We are done dying. This is a moment for our community and our country to stand united against racism and oppressive systems of systemic racism. It all starts at the polling place. It all starts on Nov. 3.”
She said the death of Floyd, on the heels of an officer-involved shooting that killed Breonna Taylor and the shooting of Ahmaud Arbery, hit her hard.
“Our communities are angry. We’re saddened. We’re hurt,” she said. “We’re saddened, but we must be strategic and measured as we battle this latest grave injustice.”
Congressman Salud Carbajal, D-Santa Barbara, said the nation is battling two viruses, including the novel coronavirus that forced people to stay at home.
“The second one has been festering in our country for generations,” Carbajal said, noting that the final minutes of Floyd at the hand of a police officer sworn to protect people included 16 pleas. “Standing here today, we are saying we will not stand to see another black person killed at the hands of a rogue officer without accountability.”
He said he joined a recently introduced House of Representatives resolution condemning brutality, racial profiling and excessive use of force by law enforcement. It also calls for improved oversight and independent investigations and more.
As a veteran, Carbajal said he “was outraged to watch this president threaten to turn our military against fellow Americans.”
“We may not all walk in the shoes of our black brothers and sisters, but we stand beside them as allies in the movement toward justice,” he said.
Mayor Alice Patino noted that looting and other acts that followed a Santa Maria protest Sunday in the city did not represent the community.
“The message given tonight by our speakers cannot be lost in any negativity that we see on TV or we saw here last Sunday,” Patino said, adding that she received calls from people pleading with her to prohibit Thursday night’s event and assured them it would be positive.
“That flag that stands out there is a symbol of our rights as Americans, and one of those rights is to assemble and the right to protest any injustices we see,” she said as the crowd applauded.
When the large pasteboard with Floyd’s pictures began to repeatedly fall over, a member of the local veterans group Band of Brothers stepped up to keep it upright during the ceremony.
In addition to the march to Main Street and back to City Hall, the event included a healing ceremony as well as 8 minutes and 49 minutes of silence — the length of time that a police officer held his knee on Floyd.
“We’re Americans no matter where we were born or when we moved here. We need to unite as the good people that we are, with our differences,” Patino said. “We need to listen to our neighbors. We need to share our experiences … and ultimately unite to strengthen our community.”
— Noozhawk North County editor Janene Scully can be reached at jscully@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.