After yesterday's march and rally organized by BIPOC youth-led activist organization Fridays4Freedom and Portland's NAACP, F4F asked their Instagram followers to share the following messages posted by another Instagram user calling out behavior by the NAACP (captions below):

Image 1. "Today I watched @fridays4freedom, a BIPOC youth-led group seeking Black liberation, get absolutely used by the local NAACP chapter as our garbage mayor and their garbage figurehead performatively posed for pictures..." (1/2)

"... then elbowed the youth out of prime speaking spots in favor of very homogenous older Black men, all of whom were basically indistinguishable from each other." (2/2)

Image 2: "By the time the youth were given the mic, the crowds had dropped considerably in size. As an adult, I cannot apologize to those kids enough." (1/2)

"Fridays4Freedom put together a great run of show just for NAACP new jacks to alter it to their liking. They could have at least worked the kids between/alongside their speakers." (2/2)

Image 3: "Instead, their good name now goes attached to trash behavior perpetuated by an old guard who somehow thinks its way is the only way, despite decades of it still leaving necessary this fight at all." (1/2)

"People trust their name because NAACP, conceptually, does stand for good work. But today, they failed the next generation. Full stop." (2/2)

Image 4: "The Portland NAACP should be embarrassed by their actions today. They even LEFT without saying anything, and didn't even tell their whole team, because one member of theirs was visibly shaken by what was going on." (1/2)

"He was left alone to deal with the actual, scheduled departure of their group. He is also someone I've seen show up for community in many contexts. His group failed him, too."

Late last night, Fridays4Freedom asked their Instagram followers to share these posts and announced they would be releasing a public statement soon.

Fridays4Freedom also shared this Instagram post with their followers of a photo taken yesterday of Mayor Ted Wheeler with Portland NAACP President Rev. E.D. Mondainé, captioned " #writeinraiford2020" and "STOP USING US AS YOUR BRAND @tedwheelerpdx !!!!"

At yesterday's rally at Revolution Hall, the first two hours were mostly adult men taking turns speaking to the crowd (several going over their allotted time). It wasn't until hours later (and after many in the crowd had left) that younger speakers and performers took the stage.

In contrast, Fridays4Freedom members were at the front of the crowd during yesterday's march, leading chants and guiding the way for hundreds of demonstrators marching from the Oregon Convention Center to Revolution Hall.

Yesterday's event happened in the wake of this open letter sent Aug. 26 by a local BIPOC organizer to Portland's NAACP requesting they stop calling protests "'A white spectacle'" and to not "shift the focus away from the incredible nightly violence of the Portland police."

Here's the text of this open letter:

"An Open Letter From a Portland BIPOC Organizer to the Local NAACP

In recent weeks the local NAACP has repeatedly derided Portland’s ongoing nightly protests against our racist police department." (1/12)

"In doing so they have brought harm to BIPOC protesters by providing political cover for Mayor Ted Wheeler who now feels emboldened to respond to these protests with extreme violence." (2/12)

"The views of the local NAACP seem to be wildly out of sync with those of Portland BIPOC activists putting their lives on the line every single day in this historic battle for civil rights." (3/12)

"One of the things which allowed the protests in Hong Kong to be so successful was that participants supported each other even if they disagreed on tactics because of a shared understanding that everyone was fighting for a common goal." (4/12)

"Allowing movements to be split between the “good” and “bad” protesters weakens them and puts people at risk. As in Hong Kong, this movement is not centralized, there are no leaders." (5/12)

"Not only is this practical but also essential from a security perspective considering that many leaders of past civil rights movements were murdered. For far too long, Portland City Hall has failed to address the systematic racism and violence endemic to PPB." (6/12)

"While our community begs for meaningful change, City Hall responds to these calls with empty promises. As we learned from the Civil Rights Movement, when good faith negotiations are denied, direct action which cannot be ignored is the natural next step; ..." (7/12)

"... a necessary and moral step towards justice. After withstanding more than 80 days of relentless police brutality, being attacked by every law enforcement agency in Oregon, and inhaling carcinogenic gas from the feds which may one day kill us, I am quite certain..." (8/12)

"... that nothing can extinguish the flames of our righteous anger. The only way this ends is with our demands being met. We would prefer that you live up to your legacy by joining BLM national in supporting our protests." (9/12)

"At the very least, we request that you stop telling the media that our movement is “A white spectacle” and not make public comments which shift the focus away from the incredible nightly violence of the Portland Police and towards the actions of individual protesters..." (10/12)

"... which you find disagreeable. We ask that you respect our community and the way people choose to protest here." (11/12)

"Many of us will be attending the NAACP rally this Friday. We hope to hear messages of support for our protests and discussion of how we can move forward together." (12/12)

While Mayor Wheeler was in Portland to take the pre-march photo with Rev. Mondainé at the Oregon Convention Center, he was absent later that day when demonstrators brought demands and staged a sit-in in his condo lobby in Northwest Portland: https://twitter.com/PortlandDSA/status/1299515880489984001