(BIVN) – Several hundred people lined both sides of Kamehameha Highway in Hilo on Saturday, holding signs and wearing masks as a precaution against the COVID-19 pandemic, in order to take a stand in support of the #BlackLivesMatter movement.

The Hawaiʻi island demonstration follows the May 25th killing of 46-year-old George Floyd under the knee of a police officer in Minneapolis, and the civil unrest that has swept the nation in the time since. The Hilo demonstration was a peaceful event, unlike the looting and violence that has erupted elsewhere in the United States.

Surfers also paddled out into Hilo Bay that same morning to participate in 8:46 minutes of silence in a peaceful remembrance.