The 1987 First March
by Donna Parrish

I will go back and pick up some dates, but this is the first draft.

The newspaper said Hosea Williams was going to bring a bus load of people and march from where they got off the bus to the courthouse. Naive me. I thought they would just get off the bus, march and that would be it. I went about what I had to do that day. Someone called and said, "Hey they had a riot at Hosea's March today. Turn on your TV."

So here I sit several hours after the event, watching TV coverage and I see Hosea walking and close behind him to one side is Molly Read the reporter for the Forsyth County News that I have worked with on so many stories. Then rocks are flying!! I find myself hollering "Duck Molly duck."

This was several hours after the event,  but it was that personal. I watched some more of the coverage and I saw a lot of people I didn't know. There was a woman screaming at the police not to take her son. The one picture that I did recognize someone was Timmy, with his long black pony tail and waving a confederate flag. I had know Timmy a long time. He even got hit by lightning in my Mom's well house while he was fixing her pump. That's the only one I knew out of all the pictures.

As time went on, I met some of the other people that I saw that day. Gina Stappas interviewed me about the property blacks had owned and it hit the wire services. Media deluge became my life for several months.

That day, I was just stunned that anyone would throw a rock.