PHOTOS: After George Floyd's Death, A Day of Pain and Protest Turns Violent in Charlotte

By Billy Ball, Grant Baldwin

June 1, 2020

As police clashed with demonstrators in Charlotte, Cardinal & Pine contributor Grant Baldwin captured it all.

After a night of unrest in North Carolina’s cities, Gov. Roy Cooper declared Sunday that: “People are more important than property, and Black lives do matter.”

But the events that preceded that, marred with uncertainty about how and why peaceful demonstrations turned violent in the evening hours, were remarkably consistent in and outside the state.

Cardinal & Pine contributor Grant Baldwin documented the scene in North Carolina’s largest city in Charlotte, where a day of peaceful demonstrations gave way to a turbulent evening.

RELATED: Gov. Roy Cooper: ‘Black Lives Do Matter.’

Baldwin talked about tension on both sides, and the mostly white and occasionally masked demonstrators who broke windows and started fights. At one point, Baldwin said a crowd of white demonstrators began firing guns in the air, prompting a swift response from police.

See below for Baldwin’s photo essay of a shocking day in North Carolina.