Montauk Is Coming Together For An Epic Black Lives Matter March On Main Street

While the week of 4th of July is usually dominated by star-studded soirees and a Surf Lodge concert or two, this year, Montauk's main event is a lot more meaningful. 

As the Black Lives Matter movement continues across the country, community members of the East End are doing their part to keep up the momentum, rallying behind Montauk resident Tanish Lindsay and her epic call to action, Love at The End.

The march is set to be held on Monday, July 6th, and comes after a June 19th rally organized by Lindsay, along with recent high school graduate Ashley Peters (East Hampton High School ‘20), which attracted more than 250 locals but was met with pushback from vocal Trump supporters and business owners, who asked the police to restrict the protesters from marching down Main Street. 

The experience, which included people yelling racial slurs during an 8 minute and 46 second silent memorial to George Floyd, inspired more women in the community to support Lindsay and her mission, leading to the organization of the town's first-ever march down Main Street.

"The goal for the Love at The End march for Black Lives Matter is to educate my community that racism exists here, that Black people and immigrants are being treated unfairly and paid poorly, and to bring our loving town together to eliminate this inequity and unkindness," she explains. "People come to Montauk to escape from the realities of their city lives, but we cannot escape racism unless we confront it here and everywhere."

Love at The End commissioned exclusive collaborative art work by Frank Frances Studio and NFL art director Kerry Paul to bring its movement to life visually. The piece, entitled “Hunted,” has been making the rounds on Instagram to promote next week's march. T-shirts of the work are available and 100% of the proceeds from sales will go to The Movement for Black Lives Matter.

With Montauk staples including Julianne Moore, Naomi Watts, Liev Schreiber, Christy Turlington, Ben Watts, Cynthia Rowley, and Sienna Miller gearing up to attend, you're sure to be in good company while marching for good reason.

[Photos via @linguafranca]