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9-year-old holds his own Black Lives Matter protest outside home to inspire neighbors

9-year-old boy holds his own Black Lives Matter protest outside his home
Posted at 12:45 PM, Jun 09, 2020
and last updated 2020-06-09 16:07:30-04

CHICAGO, Ill. – A 9-year-old boy held his own Black Lives Matter protest in his front yard over the weekend to inspire others to support racial justice.

Katya Kelley told WLS that a neighbor encouraged families living in their Chicago neighborhood to draw hearts in their driveways in solidarity with the protests over George Floyd’s death. So, her son Aiden grabbed a bucket of chalk and got to work.

The boy covered the sidewalk in front of his home in drawings of things like hearts, flags and hands embracing.

However, Aiden wanted to make his message more direct after learning more about the Black Lives Matter movement, so he decided to make a sign to walk around with.

Aiden told WLS that he just wanted to support everyone and make sure they felt happy, because of the events of the past few weeks. Katya said she was taken aback by her son's enthusiasm to help bring about change.

A neighbor ended up snapping a photo of Aiden and posted it to Twitter, where it's been liked and retweeted thousands of times.

"There aren't just two races, there is only one race - the human race," Aiden told WLS.