LA GRANDE — As the rest of the nation protests and mourns the death of George Floyd, 11-year-old Miri Koltuv of La Grande wanted to bring home the fight for racial equality.

“I woke up Friday morning and was reading the New York Times and saw the rally happening there and decided I want to have one here,” Koltuv said.

She organized a protest for Saturday morning in front of La Grande City Hall at Adams Avenue and Fourth Street. After contacting a few families and friends, word about the protest spread through the community. The event drew about 20 participants.

“It is not as big of an issue here as in New York, because there is not as many people of color here,” Koltuv said, “but there are still people here and it is important that we let them know we see them and are protesting for them.”

Cheryl Simpson of La Grande joined the effort. She said a second protest is planned for Tuesday from 4-5 p.m. again outside the city hall building. Because of the short notice on Saturday, many people expressed a desire but inability to attend. So Simpson organized a follow-up protest to give those who want a chance to come out and support the cause.

“I am happy that I had that idea and inspired people to do more stuff,” Koltuv said.

Simpson said to combat the risk of spreading the coronavirus, all protesters are encouraged to wear masks and people will stand 6 feet apart.

“Since the area in front of city hall is not large, if the group is bigger than on Saturday, we will go on each side of city hall,” Simpson said.

People who join the protests may be there to honor George Floyd or to fight for racial equality, or both.

“Standing publicly for what you believe in is always a good idea. It is the silence that leaves us isolated,” Simpson said.

Another protest in Eastern Oregon drew a larger and different crowd.

More than 100 people arrived Saturday in downtown Hermiston in defiance of coronavirus guidelines against large gatherings for a “freedom rally,” subsequently sparking a protest in opposition elsewhere in the city.

Organizers billed the rally as a peaceful and apolitical “information sharing event” that would feature about a dozen speakers from across the state. The rally remained peaceful despite concerns over potential conflict.

“It could have been better. I didn’t know exactly what every person was going to talk about,” said Colin Hodges, the event’s primary organizer. “I just thought, let’s bring in as many different people as possible from different positions in different communities and let them speak and see what happens.”

Community members and law enforcement expressed specific concerns about the appearance of Joey Gibson, who spoke first Saturday and is the founder of the far-right Vancouver, Washington-based group Patriot Prayer. But Hodges said he felt Gibson’s presence did not ultimately define the event.

Reports have detailed Gibson and Patriot Prayer’s history of violent clashes with leftist protestors, particularly in Portland, and Patriot Prayer has previously been associated with groups such as the Proud Boys, an extremist organization labeled as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center and whose members describe themselves as “Western chauvinists.”

Gibson faces felony charges for inciting a riot for his role in a Portland street fight last May between Patriot Prayer members and members of the anti-fascist community that resulted in a woman being knocked unconscious and sent to the hospital with an alleged vertebrae fracture.

Joshua Linn is a teacher at Rocky Heights Elementary School, Hermiston, and attended the beginning of Saturday’s rally after he said a coworker texted him about its connections to white supremacist groups. After watching a few speakers from the back, Linn said he found most of them interesting and didn’t see any associations with white supremacy.

“It doesn’t seem like a white supremacist rally to me,” he said.

About three blocks from the “Hermiston Freedom Rally,” a protest labeled “Essential not Sacrificial” started at the same time.

By noon, protesters all wearing surgical or cloth masks were taping posters to about 20 vehicles sitting in the parking lot at the corner of North First Place and Locust Avenue. Signs included “Thank you farm workers!” and “We are wearing masks for you, not us!” One vehicle sported a “Black Lives Matter” sign.

Organizer Diedre Torres said before the parade of vehicles departed that she was going to take them on a route through town that avoided the other rally.

“I’m just trying to concentrate on what we’re doing,” she said.

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East Oregonian reporter Alex Castle contributed to this article.