Thousands of people filled the streets of Dorchester early Sunday morning, honoring mothers whose children have been killed while also commemorating their childrens’ lives, in the 28th Mother’s Day Walk 4 Peace.
Snaking through Dorchester in a crowd that stretched several blocks, marchers wore T-shirts and hoodies printed with photos of loved ones. They wished each other a happy Mother’s Day through embraces filled with tears and laughter.
The walk, held annually by the Louis D. Brown Peace Institute, commemorates those lost to guns and other forms of violence. It seeks to provide a sense of community for mothers who have lost their children, according to founder Clementina Chéry, whose son Louis was killed roughly three decades ago.
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Speaking partway through the walk, Chéry said this year’s theme was developing “cycles of peace” within her community. Several in the crowd wore shirts that read, “Healed people heal people.”
Janice Johnson, 62, walked near the head of the crowd, carrying a banner with photos of her late son, Jamaar “5ive” Johnson, who she said was run over in September. She wore a shirt with his photo printed underneath the words, “My one and only son.”
Speaking through a megaphone, she wished those around her a happy Mother’s Day. “For lots of us, it’s a healing Mother’s Day, for sure,” she told the crowd.
Johnson held up a speaker, playing a song that followed the rhythm of a recording of JaMaar Johnson’s heartbeat. She said she donated her son’s heart, and it still beats in the chest of a 60-year-old recipient. Johnson said she produced the track herself, combining verses her son had written and recorded with her own singing, recorded after his death.
“It feels like he’s with me; like we’re in the studio together,” Johnson said, as tears welled in her eyes. “His spirit is so strong.”
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Johnson said the walk, and other community events that spring from it, helps give grieving mothers “permission to keep their loved ones’ memory alive.”
As she walked up Geneva Avenue, families stood on their porches, waving and watching the crowd wind by. Many onlookers wished the crowd a happy Mother’s Day.
The marchers were mixed by race, but the majority of the mourners carrying signs were Black. The overwhelming majority of shooting victims in Boston are Black, according to city data; last year, more than 70 percent of shooting victims were Black.
Across Boston, homicides were down dramatically to start the year.
Before the walk began, the crowd gathered at Town Field in Dorchester for a speaking program, where they heard from local clergy, city and state elected officials, and a handful of mothers whose children had been killed by gun violence. Speakers touched on the pain of loss and the value of building community.
Among them were Mayor Michelle Wu of Boston, a half-dozen city councilors, state legislators, and US Representative Ayanna Pressley, who said that every young person’s death is “a deprivation, a denial of greatness that could have been.”
“I believe in the power of each of your testimonies, although I wish you did not have to relive and weaponize your trauma to compel action from your government,” Pressley told the crowd.
In her remarks, Chéry said the money raised from Sunday’s walk, more than $450,000, will help provide financial assistance to relatives of those killed by gun violence in Massachusetts.
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Last year, the organization gave more than $275,000 to assist families with funeral costs, in addition to more than $132,000 for survivor families who needed further financial assistance, including money to relocate, she said.
About three miles into the route, Chéry walked from family to family, sharing hugs and taking photos with other marchers. She noted that the crowd was made up of survivors as well as families who had not been affected by gun violence but still wanted to show their support.
“This is about who we are as women and as mothers,” Chéry said. “We focus on peace, and healing, and family, and joy.”
Further back, Alisya Dancy carried a banner with photos of her late son, Damonté Dancy-Herber, who was shot in 2022. If he were still alive, she said, they’d probably be at church, looking forward to a Mother’s Day dinner; instead, she walked for the second time, remembering her son as a jokester and a protector.
“It’s amazing how you see so many [people] walking, but it’s also a great sadness when you see that there’s been so many lives taken,” Dancy said. “It makes me know that I’m not alone, and that we are here together.”
Alexandra Dorrelus, co-executive director of the Peace Institute and Chery’s daughter, said she’s seen the annual crowd swell from just her mother and a handful of others to the thousands seen Sunday.
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Dorrelus said it can be challenging to keep track of her own grief as she focuses on organizing the walk, and said she comes into Mother’s Day heavy with grief for her brother.
“It’s emotional. Sometimes I’m so in it that I don’t always get a chance to step back and see,” Dorrelus said. ”When I truly feel it, is when I’m on that walk route, and I turn around, and there’s a sea of people behind me.”
Daniel Kool can be reached at daniel.kool@globe.com. Follow him @dekool01.