MILWAUKEE — Dozens of people gathered at Wilson Park on Saturday for a welcome home party for Milwaukee activists Frank Nitty Sensabaugh and Tory Lowe, after they led a march from Wisconsin to Washington, D.C.
Nitty said he and the rest of the group returned from the capital last week, not long after the March on Washington on August 28. He said it's good to be back.
"It's an overwhelming experience, all these people coming out," Nitty said.
The group began marching to D.C. on August 4, and Nitty says he quickly realized the journey wouldn't be easy.
"Confederate flags, Trump 2020 signs, and n-words, the whole trip, F250 trucks, stuff like that, but the whole time though, to uncover that much racism, we were just walking to honor Martin Luther King," Nitty said. "We never knew we would have all that racism face us on the way there."
Nitty and Lowe were arrested in Indiana, but they say they never once thought to give up. Nitty and Lowe say they thought about returning to Kenosha for a day after they saw the video of the shooting of Jacob Blake, but they say they canceled those plans when they encountered gunfire in Pennsylvania.
One person in their group was hurt. Pennsylvania State Police say "gunfire was exchanged" and are investigating.
"It was just devastating to hear that was going on, we were actually contemplating to actually fly back home to Kenosha and then come back and continue our journey, and that's when the shots started ringing out," Lowe said.
The group made it to D.C. for the March on Washington on August 28. Nitty spoke in front of the crowd.
"To be able to say something that the world listened to, knowing that there's all these other people with all these credentials and all these other people that are supposed to be talking," Nitty said. "I'm just a guy that walked from Milwaukee, that they just said, we just want to hear what you think."
"It was amazing to see the human fight for justice," Lowe said.
Back in Milwaukee, Nitty and Lowe thanked people for their support.
"Lot of people had invested time and money and interest in helping us get there," Lowe said. "Lot of people on social media donating to make sure we had hotels to stay in, food to eat, gas in our cars, shoes."
Nitty says he doesn't plan to stay home in Milwaukee for much longer. He said he's first heading out to Rochester, New York, to help with the family of Daniel Prude, who died after being taken into police custody back in March.
He said he wants to go to Los Angeles, California, and Portland, Oregon, once it's safe after the wildfires.
"We'll be on the road to highlight 100 families that no one knows about that lost their loved ones to police brutality and violence," Nitty said. " And try to bring attention to the families that aren't getting attention like George Floyd."
