How Black Lives Matter activists interrupted a popular tree-lighting ceremony
"No one is illegal" was the message activists had for holiday revelers at Atlanta's annual tree-lighting ceremony.
The 56-foot tall tree atop the Macy's Men's store in Atlanta was lit with thousands of LED lights Sunday night as part of a holiday tradition. But in the middle of the lighting, activists from the Black Lives Matter movement and immigrant rights groups attempted to redirect attention away from the ceremony.
The activists literally shone a light on immigration issues. On the side of a nearby building, the activists projected, "No one is illegal."
One of the two activists who set up the projector recorded her experience on Facebook Live, including an interaction with police asking the pair to turn off the projector and banning them from the area for a year.
In the video, Annette Taylor, said "we're here in solidarity for everyone who is a human being ... We came here to make a statement."
The stunt was definitely noticed by some of the thousands of tree-lighting attendees.
A Macy's spokeswoman emailed Mashable Monday afternoon that there were no disruptions at the holiday event. "Last night, we had a great tree lighting event, celebrating our 69th year of the Macy’s Great Tree Lighting in Atlanta. The thousands attending the event were excited and truly in the holiday spirit of the season. There were no disruptions to the event," the statement read.
Topics Black Lives Matter
Sasha is a news writer at Mashable's San Francisco office. She's an SF native who went to UC Davis and later received her master's from the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. She's been reporting out of her hometown over the years at Bay City News (news wire), SFGate (the San Francisco Chronicle website), and even made it out of California to write for the Chicago Tribune. She's been described as a bookworm and a gym rat.
