On July 7, 2016, Leila Ismaio, 17, of Nixa, Mo., woke to the news of another life lost to police brutality. The daughter of two immigrants who left their home country to escape a brutal dictatorship, Ismaio does not see liberty and justice as exclusive rights in America.

As a young millennial, Ismaio naturally took to social media to express her disappointment with the most recent acts of police brutality.

That night Ismaio posted a poll on Twitter asking her followers whether or not she should organize a Black Lives Matter demonstration in downtown Springfield, the large town adjacent to Nixa, “The options were ‘Leila don’t be stupid’ or ‘Let’s do this,’” said Ismaio. 69 percent of voters responded positively; yes, Ismaio should organize a demonstration.

A few miles north, in Springfield, Lauren Lawson, 17, woke to the same news.

“I was just angry,” said Lawson upon discovering the news that morning.

Like Ismaio, Lawson also took to social media to observe her peers’ reaction to the news. It was then that Lawson discovered the poll Ismaio, a stranger at the time, had created.

“I replied and said ‘Hello, please do this’ and then she DM’ed me, and it kinda took off after that,” said Lawson.

As Ismaio’s best friend and another first generation immigrant who also does not take liberty and justice lightly, Karina Bratkov, 16, also of Nixa, joined the cause.

In just over 48 hours, the three got together and created an event that brought people of all ages, race, and gender together.

On Saturday, July 9th approximately 150 people gathered at Park Central Square in downtown Springfield for a peaceful demonstration; their cause: proving that everyone can make a difference and activism can be practiced in peace.

Before the demonstration began, Bratkov, Ismaio, and Lawson made their way to the outer corners of the square where they greeted supervising police officers with warm smiles and handshakes, the officers returned their warm gestures enthusiastically.

“This is supposed to be peaceful. I want everyone to remember that. There may be signs out there that have negative words on them or things that you might find insulting. But, here’s the thing, that doesn’t matter because we are here to prove that we can be the bigger person and we can stand up and we can fight for what we believe in peacefully,” said Ismaio at the beginning of the demonstration.

Her words prompted one participant, a grown man, to shout for non-violence, which caused a loud round of applause to erupt from the crowd of demonstrators.

Lawson reiterated Ismaio’s message by speaking about the Black Lives Matter organization and the group’s motives.

“We’re trying to prove to everyone that Black Lives Matter is not a negative organization,” Lawson said “We cannot let the few individuals who have proven to be corrupt people degrade the entirety of the police force. This is not anti-police, this is anti-police brutality.”

Lawson then welcomed several participants who had been especially involved in the event’s Facebook page to say a few words. One woman read the lyrics to the song “Where is the Love?” by the Black Eyed Peas to express her feelings about the recent killings in Baton Rouge, Minnesota and Dallas.

The group wanted to show the community and media that they could have a peaceful, empowering protest. Missouri Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate, Cori Bush, made the trip to Springfield solely to show her support for the movement. Bush spoke about her service as a Registered Nurse and her experience with Ferguson Frontline in Ferguson, Missouri. She shared her support for the Black Lives Matter movement and her hopes for the future of her state and country.

Bush brought along several of her campaign volunteers, including Reverend Daryl Gray, member of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), a civil rights organization founded in part by Dr. Martin Luther King Junior in the late 1950s.

“To see young white women do this, it warms my heart. It shows me hope. It lets me know that the future is in good hands,” said Gray, sharing his admiration of Ismaio, Lawson, and Bratkov.

Gray expressed his belief that without the aid of young white people in the past, many civil rights advancements would not have been successful, which is why he finds Bratkov, Ismaio, and Lawson’s accomplishment so important.

“If white people don’t work to eliminate racism, racism won’t get eliminated. And young whites can cross more bridges than older whites can do, just as young blacks can cross more bridges,” said Gray.

Gray’s message seemed to be mirrored throughout the entire crowd when an open microphone was presented to the crowd after a short march around the square’s perimeter.

The themes that seemed to carry throughout the entire crowd over the course of the night were peace and unity: two messages the trio of girls was very excited to share with their community.

A diverse collection of people was drawn to the front of the crowd in order to express their appreciation and support for the demonstration, including a young white boy.

“My best friend is black, his name is Tyler,” the boy began, “I love hanging out with him, and I’m trying to stand up for him because what’s going on is not great and not anyone should go through this. What I want to say is, I really think everyone should get involved in this, not just one person. And I’m just a kid. I just want to make a difference.”

An older white man with a sign that read, “We are all colors of the same rainbow” made his way to the front and began to sing “Let There be Peace on Earth." The crowd joined in.

A black woman in her 20s stood at the front of the crowd and shared, with tears in her eyes, how she already feared for her future son in today’s world because of the color of his skin.

Towards the end of the open microphone, Ismaio’s mother, Hala Gheriani, took to the front of the crowd, “Over 20 years ago I shed my identity as a North African Libyan and now I am standing in front of you as a proud U.S. citizen...I am not black and I am not white. I am brown. And that is OK,” she shared.

Gheriani’s own struggles have proven to be very instrumental in her daughter’s life as she says that it is stories like her own that encourage Ismaio to reach out and support others.

“They [the girls] have a wider perspective of what’s going on, not just in America but overseas, and so they’re not taking what we have here for granted,” said Ms. Ismaio, mostly of her daughter and Bratkov, “They’re afraid it’s going to disappear and that’s why they’re doing what they’re doing.”

When Ismaio first introduced the idea of a demonstration to her mother, Gheriani expressed her concern to her daughter, worrying that it wasn’t safe, especially in such a conservative region.

“Mom, you ran away from a dictatorship. You were silenced and it took 22 years to change it. Do you want me to be silent? Just as guilty?” said Ismaio to her mother.

Ismaio’s words seemed to resonate with her mother.

“Alone, they’re a tiny addition, but if they can inspire other people to stand up and do what’s right, regardless of skin color, then they will do to this community a better service than any of the politicians right now…they’re doing it from the heart, and that’s what matters,” said Gheriani.

The three also emphasized the role social media played in the night. “[We wanted to] see all the hashtags [and] all the retweets come to life and that’s exactly what happened here, we got people young and old to come here in support of Black Lives Matter, which is really amazing,” said Bratkov.

Bratkov expressed her belief that a problem with her own generation is that, often times, people are retweeting and posting, participating in “online activism,” but not taking action. She wanted to pave the way for others in her generation to bring the hashtags to life by helping organize the demonstration.

The Facebook page for the event started with approximately 30 invites, according to Ismaio, and spread throughout friend networks, eventually reaching nearly 2,000 total invites.

Ismaio credits social media for the success of the demonstration, “The reason why we had this is because people kept sending invites and social media brought us all together,” said Ismaio.

These girls have a lesson to teach people nationwide. Not only were three high school girls able to stage a peaceful protest, but they were also able to show their peers that you do not have to be of voting age to make a difference. Through a simple tweet, three high school girls participated in a nationwide movement and united their community. Most importantly, they did so peacefully; a feat that has not come easily to many adults in this country.