SAN ANTONIO -- Ryan Silva is not known for organizing protests.


What You Need To Know


  • Organizer grew up on the East Side, in historically black neighborhood

  • Has experienced police brutality in that neighborhood

  • Middle schoolers to 20-year-olds and more came out to support

“Just parties, nothing really productive, progressive,” Silva said. “I’m excited to use my platform to finally make a change in the community - hopefully make a change in the community.”

Silva aimed to educate the youth on a timely issue in the black community through skating. Skaters from middle school aged kids to folks in their late 20s came from all over town.

“This is exactly what I wanted, I wanted the youth come out,” Silva said, sitting on his bike as protesters rolled past him. “I see nothing but smiling faces. I see people ready to do it for the right cause.”

Japhet “Ibambino” McKenzie cried as James Brown, an old-timer who has kept children off the streets through sports, spoke at the rally.

 

 


Japhet ‘Ibambino’ McKenzie cries as he listens to one of the speakers at the Roll in Peace protest. (Spectrum News/Jose Arrendondo)

 

“You don’t want your children to go through what I have to go through with racial equality,” Brown said. “Now is the time to make a change.”

Instead of clapping, the skaters smacked their boards against the ground.

For a first-time organizer, there were no hiccups, just skaters, cyclists and activists protesting.

“No justice, no peace,” the protesters chanted at Travis Park.

Silva grew up on the East Side of San Antonio in a historically black neighborhood that’s plagued by poverty.

“I never really grew up with my dad or my mom,” Silva said while riding his bike. “It’s always been my grandma and my grandpa.”

Police brutality is something that Silva and his black peers experienced on the East Side.

“And so, like a lot of my friends growing up were black - this whole community; I never really had a close Hispanic best friend since I went to Brackenridge High School,” Silva said.

The 26-year-old has yet to miss a San Antonio protest since the death of George Floyd and he doesn’t plan to miss one.

“I feel their words when they talk. I feel their anger, their fear, their intensity,” Silva said. “It just makes me realize that I have to go that much harder for them.”

Silva plans to continue this momentum on Sunday for National Skate Day so San Antonians can once again roll in peace.

 

 


Ryan Silva holds his fist up during his Roll in Peace protest. (Spectrum News/Jose Arrendondo)