ZIONSVILLE, Ind. — “Bike to Be Heard” is a night bike ride to promote social justice and diversity on Saturday, July 18 at 8 p.m. in Zionsville.
The event is organized by Aaron Williams, a Black Zionsville resident who wanted to bring together Indiana communities not known for their ethnic diversity.
“One of the reasons that we started the bike ride and wanted to go to Carmel and Zionsville is because the population of Blacks is very minimal,” Williams explained to 13News. “What we're trying to do is encourage our White neighbors and residents to be allies. We need them to understand more than anyone the need to celebrate diversity and inclusion. So we picked these two cities intentionally for that reason because so many people feel like, ‘Hey, what is it that I can do?’ They may not feel comfortable going to a rally or they may not feel comfortable going to a protest.”
Williams said that Saturday's bike ride is for families that are asking “What can I do to engage and bring my family to an event that supports diversity, inclusion and promotes social justice, but also does it put me in an awkward predicament?”
Williams said this “Bike to Be Heard” event is about bringing races together.
“For us, as members of the Black community, we need White allies, more than anything, to help bring about the change that we're desiring,” Williams said.
And the response to the bike ride has been through the roof.
“Our initial goal when we started this off was just a small community ride with about 100 riders, no more than 150 people,” Williams smiled. “After the word got out, we're at nearly 400 riders, and we still haven't shut the registration down. So we're anticipating a pretty large turnout.”
The ride covers 5.4 miles, and it is totally closed to vehicular traffic. Riders will have a full police escort as they leave Zionsville along 106th Street, head down Michigan Road into Carmel, and back west on 96th Street. Both the Zionsville and Carmel police departments are involved.
“I think one of the most interesting yet intriguing parts of that is, you're going to see members of the law enforcement community intertwined in riding their bikes with their families,” Williams said proudly.
Williams actually organized this biking event after he had a negative experience riding his bike on a path in Zionsville recently.
“I was accosted by two individuals on a bike trail and had a third individual spit at me, from what I can only perceive as being racially motivated,” he recalled. “I took that as an opportunity to educate so many of my neighbors and friends about enduring racism. After some conversations with the mayor and the chief of police, I said, 'Hey, I need our community and our town to understand diversity is needed, and it's important.' With their support and collaboration, we were able to pull this event off. But I think even outside of this event, I've been able to work directly with the mayor's office and the council president, and even the chief of police to say ‘What is it that I can personally do to increase diversity to promote inclusion and equity for everyone?’”
The answer to that questions happens this Saturday night. If you would like to take part, click here: