The Charlotte Observer from Charlotte, North Carolina • A1

YOU STAY SILENT OR YOU DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT.Mahagony Rose, 20, a Charlotte native who helped organized a demonstration After two days of some- times destructive demonstra- tions with dozens of arrests, Charlotte saw a day of peace- ful protests Sunday over the Minnesota police killing of George Floyd. Meanwhile, Gov. Roy Cooper said the National Guard would be available to Raleigh and Charlotte at the request of both cities. The Sunday marches from two uptown Charlotte parks followed a night of unrest in Charlotte and Raleigh, and Cooper said the cities had requested help from the Na- tional Guard. Cooper said 450 guard members were activated, but did not specify how many were going to Charlotte.

of these guardsmen are trained in how to protect public structures and that is how they will be Cooper said. The city of Charlotte, how- ever, tweeted late Sunday that the Guard was not being deployed Sunday night. are reports that the National Guard is deploying to Charlotte in response to demonstrations. That is not true. The National Guard has been in assisting with COVID-19 response.

There are no plans at this time to deploy the National Guard in response to tweeted. Earlier Sunday, demonstra- tors gathered in both First Ward Park, east of Tryon Street, and a few blocks away at Romare Bearden Park in uptown Charlotte. The First Ward event was sponsored by Ends which bills itself as a Christian-based advocacy group to fight racial injustice. In deference to the CO- VID-19 pandemic, most of them wore masks. Meanwhile, several hundred others circled Bear- den Park off Church Street, in a protest organized by T.H.U.G.L.I.F.E., rapper Tupac acronym about the widespread dam- age caused by hatred.

PHOTOS BY DUSTIN DUONG Police line the sidewalks of uptown in what organizers estimate to be a mile-long procession on Sunday. After two days of tense and violent protests over the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Charlotte hosted two demonstrations in uptown. After 2 days of unrest, Charlotte protests peacefully BY MICHAEL GORDON, GAVIN OFF AND AUSTIN WEINSTEIN Two protestors hug in greeting at an Ends Now rally in First Ward Park. FOUNDED 1886 VOLUME 151, No. 153 FACEBOOK.COM/THECHARLOTTEOBSERVER TWITTER.COM/THEOBSERVER READ BY 1 IN PRINT AND ONLINE MONDAY, JUNE 1, 2020 $2 CHARLOTTEOBSERVER.COM Classified 3B Comics 5B Editorial 7B Horoscope 5B Local 4A Obituaries 5A Puzzles 6B Sports 1B CUSTOMER SERVICE To subscribe or report delivery issues, 800-532-5350 or charlotteobserver.com/customer-service SPORTS Keselowski takes checkered flag at Bristol after Elliott, Logano wreck 1B Sunny; comfortable See 2A News XTRA PROTESTS ACROSS THE US CONTINUE For news not available when this paper went to press, please see our special section in the eEdition.

Subscribers will find this bonus content at charlotteobserver.com/ eedition CAROLYN KASTER AP A student in a yellow shirt casually strolls around the perim- eter of the room until he gets to 10th-grader Ean desk, where he stops and glowers down at his classmate for a couple of beats. Then, suddenly, the student in the yellow shirt explodes into violence, pummeling Hughes with a blizzard of punches nearly two dozen and twice kicking him in the back before the video abruptly ends. But the video really stop there. Within hours, it had gone viral at Bessemer City High School in Gaston County, where the outburst occurred. were sending it around the school like said Melissa Le Ann Jones, mother.

In the days that followed, the student body moved on to other things, and the video never circu- lated, in any significant way, beyond that population. told his girlfriend at the time, I said, anybody sends it to you, send it straight to me. Because gonna need it in the And on Wednesday more than eight months after the in- cident, which happened in a Math 1 class last Sept. 17 Jones finally decided that she needed it. With that, the 27-second cell- phone video that showed the attack on her son went up on her Facebook page, along with what she hoped would be a call to action regarding her case that also doubled as a bit of a public shaming of her local gov- ernment.

county courts have yet to still do anything to this young man for what he done to my Jones wrote in her post. share so Ean can get Her plea worked even better than she could have imagined, in one way: The video has been shared more than 3,000 times and has garnered nearly 100,000 views. As for justice? Well, that could prove to be far more elusive than anticipated, Jones is just now Video of Gaston County teen being beaten in class goes viral BY JANES Courtesy of Melissa Le Ann Jones Ean Hughes suffered a concussion due to blows to his head during the attack. SEE VICTIM, 3A With the third day of protests underway across Charlotte in response to the police killing of George Floyd, black church leaders preached messages of understanding, peace and solidarity. As tensions rose, church leaders across Char- lotte expressed support for the protesters while also urging them to be peaceful.

Many shared feelings of anger and disillusionment but urged protesters not to be destructive. Pastor Claude Alexander of The Park Church shared his personal feelings about Floyd and other recent deaths as a result of police brutality. understand the anger, disillusionment, de- spair, outrage and grief. I understand it because I feel it Alexander said. am a black man who knows that every day that I am one drive away, one jog away, one police stop away, one false accusation away from black clergy preach peace and understanding BY DONOVAN THOMAS SEE BLACK CLERGY, 6A SEE PEACEFUL, 7A.