Mayor George Flaggs Jr. and Police Chief Walter Armstrong will be among the speakers taking the podium Tuesday evening at a Community Unity Rally at the Vicksburg Farmers Market site at the corner of Washington and Jackson streets.

Flaggs anounced his and the chief’s intentions before the start of Monday’s meeting of the Board of Mayor and Aldermen. The rally is from 5 to 7 p.m.

He called the rally, which is being held to promote better unity in the city, “A giant step in the right direction. I think it speaks volumes for the kind of community we live in.”

He said a flier promoting the event “explains what it is.” The flier, he said, proposes to get people together “to promote solidarity that Vicksburg will be a far stronger community if everyone will embrace diversity and work together to achieve that goal.”

Brianna Knox, a Vicksburg resident and student at Mississippi Delta Community College in Moorehead, initially filed a request with the city to hold what she called at the time a peaceful protest July 22 and 23 to call attention to black-on-black crime and the lack of prosecution of crimes involving the deaths of blacks.

The event was later changed to a rally for the community for Aug. 2.

When she appeared before the board July 25 to announce the new date and format, she said the event was open to everyone “to come together as one, because lately we’ve been seeing a lot on the news, due to police brutality and it’s turned into a race thing.

“Everyone is trying to divide us and trying to make everyone section off, and it shouldn’t be that way. I’m having this because if the youth start something, then everyone will change.”