As boarding up integrates into the closing routine for local stores, a local business owner organized a 24-hour protest while keeping the doors open to his barbershop. 

“In the midst all this, everybody’s shutting down early, afraid [riots are] going to happen but the problem is, people are so nervous they don’t think that we can to things together,” said Anthony Helm, owner of Prime Time Barbershop and organizer of the event. “We’re going to still protest, we’re still going to let our voice be heard […] but out of love instead of putting a blow horn in somebody’s face or getting real aggressive about it, we’re here to show people we can do it out of love.” 

Helm said he planned this a couple of days ago and he wanted to hand out bottles of water to the protesters and give flowers to the community.  

The event took place on June 5, Breonna Taylor’s birthday, she would have turned 27. Taylor was a 26-year-old Black woman who was shot by police that believed two men were selling drugs out of that house — they were at the wrong house.  

Along with Taylor’s death, a string of racial-driven murders and assaults have occurred.

Ahmaud Arbery was an unarmed 25-year-old Black man who was fatally shot while on a jog, a white woman named Amy Cooper called the police on a Black man and George Floyd was a Black man who was asphyxiated by former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin. 

People all across the nation expressed their grief, rage and desire to change the system with a chain of protests, riots, petitions and vigils. 

“That’s why I’m out here, because I want people to understand that we look at it as we’re doing this because we want to make a change,” said Jonathan Garcia, a community member who spoke at the event. “If it has to get violent, I hate to say this, but there’s no way our voice across anymore.” 

Garcia is half Black and half Latino. 

“I feel like people just need to figure out the obvious,” said Maie Hamad, a protester at the event. “We’re all equal, we should be treated equal and that everyone is the same, no matter what — no matter what color your skin is.” 

In Ames, people sat on the curb of the road at the intersection of Main Street and Kellogg Avenue, holding signs with “Black Lives Matter.” In the background, music played as Helm took out his barber chair and gave free haircuts to the protesters. 

People around the community volunteered for the event.

Every three hours, the people would gather around to listen to a speaker. 

Garcia spoke to the crowd of 60 people with the hope of having his voice heard. 

“I’m tired of driving my car at night, getting home from the gym and I see police coming up behind me like I’ve done something wrong,” Garcia said. “I always got to tell myself ‘what did I do wrong?’ I’m a normal Black man, just trying to go home [and] just trying to provide for my family. I’m tired of it, man.” 

Garcia said he wants to be seen as equal and work with the community to spread the message of change. He said he’s seen the Black community has been headlined for the negative aspects of their life. 

“We should be headlined for things that we’re doing good,” Garcia said. “There are a lot of good Black politicians, there’s a lot of good people doing a lot good things — everyone wants to come to our church, we’re so empowering but the white people don’t see that.”

Tables were set out with materials to make signs and T-shirts as food and water were laid out to the attendees. A steady flow of people came and left the event throughout the day. By the time the clock hit 1 a.m., most of the crowd had dwindled but Helm sat on a barber chair and a few protesters stood in the night. 

“I wish I could make up for what other people are doing right now,” Helm said. “As a white person and a business owner, I just want to sit back and I want to listen, I want to learn and I want to follow up. A firefighter is [meant to] all kinds of fires — well my house isn’t on fire right now and theirs is, and I understand it and I get it. I just want to help any way I can and if anything else, I want [the Black community] to know that Prime Time in Ames is a spot where anybody and everybody is welcome no matter what.”