DALTON, Ga. — Tierra Hickey says she felt she had to take a stand.

“I saw on the news about Alton Sterling and Philando Castile and the police brutality that took their innocent lives,” she said. “I just decided I had to do something.”

Hickey and some friends are organizing a March for Justice on Friday in Dalton starting at 4 p.m. The marchers will meet outside Harmon Field and march to the Whitfield County Courthouse.

The deaths of Sterling and Castile, two black men shot to death by police in Louisiana and Minnesota respectively, have spurred protests nationwide over police brutality, especially against black males.

Hickey says she wants to draw attention to a national problem but is not focused on either the Dalton Police Department or the Whitfield County Sheriff’s Office.

“I haven’t heard anything about the Dalton Police Department, and my own interaction with them has been very nice and friendly,” she said.

Dalton Police Department spokesman Bruce Frazier says officers have been in contact with Hickey.

“Our officers have been made aware of the march, just as they would anytime there might be a large number of people gathering,” he said. “They (the protest organizers) have a right to make their voices heard and right to protest, so long as no laws are being broken, and we will do nothing to interfere with that right.”

Hickey said she hopes the entire Dalton community can come together in support of black lives and against police brutality.