The rally was organized by New Kentucky, a collective that includes Kentuckians for the Commonwealth and African American activist groups like the Louisville Urban League, Black Lives Matter and the National Panhellenic Council.
They rallied for a number of causes, mostly involving legislation that would affect students and education.
Organizer Megan Bailey spoke against multiple bills that would target Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programs in schools.
“There are so many stories about how people have made it to that line to be able to receive their degrees because they felt heard, they felt seen, they felt important, because of these programs that have been implemented,” Bailey said.
Bills that would prohibit those programs include House Bill 93, which would ban DEI initiatives at the K-12 level, Senate Bill 6, which would keep colleges and universities from offering training on certain DEI-related concepts and House Bill 9, which would eliminate DEI offices at colleges.
Other attendees were concerned about Senate Bill 80. The bill would bar the use of student IDs as valid voter identification in an effort to stop election fraud.
But Berea College student Maddie Pierce says a lot of students do not have the time or money to get a state ID.
“One of the big terms we use at Berea is ‘Berea Busy,’” Pierce said. “I don't have time to sit at the DMV, I don't have time to fill out all the paperwork. I don't have an address in Berea other than my CPO (College Post Office) box and my dorm address.”
Organizers say they’d like to use the New Kentucky platform to bring these groups under one banner and encourage more young people to run for local office.
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