The Vineyard may seem far removed from the tensions that have spurred national protests in recent weeks. But on Thursday, a group of Islanders will march in solidarity with thousands of others around the country who are demanding an end to racial violence.

The march will take place in downtown Vineyard Haven and will be in the spirit of the national #BlackLivesMatter movement, which involves both social media and public protests. But it will have a broader scope, drawing attention to violence against African Americans as well as police officers.

“It should be a quiet, peaceful march,” said Carrie Tankard, vice president of the Martha’s Vineyard chapter of the NAACP, who helped organize the march along with the group’s secretary, Liza Coogan. The march will be done in silence.

A march was originally considered for November, following the grand jury decision in St. Louis not to indict Darren Wilson, the Ferguson, Mo. police officer who shot Michael Brown. That decision sparked national protests against police brutality and the systems that perpetuate violence against African Americans.

“Then the protests started turning kind of ugly, with the looting and the burning of buildings and people getting hurt,” said Erik Blake, chief of police in Oak Bluffs and president of the Island NAACP. “So we put it off for a little bit.” Mr. Blake was until recently the president of the Massachusetts Chiefs of Police Association, giving him a unique perspective on issues surrounding racial profiling.

Following the murder of two New York city police officers earlier this month, plans for the march took another turn. Mr. Blake said many NAACP members had reached out to him, and the message people wanted to create on the Vineyard is that all lives matter.

“People will be holding both signs: ‘All Lives Matter’ and ‘Black Lives Matter,’” Mr. Blake said.

The march will begin at noon on Jan. 1, at Five Corners in Vineyard Haven. It will then head west on State Road, continue down Main street and Union street, and end at the parking lot across from the Steamship Authority. If the group includes more than 50 people, they will be allowed to march in the street, but otherwise will need to stay on the sidewalks. Mr. Blake expects between 75 and 100 people to join the march.

Despite moments of racial tension over the last few decades, Mr. Blake said he was unaware of any federal action regarding civil rights and law enforcement on the Vineyard. But the potential for bias is something his department takes seriously.

“That’s a huge thing, and it’s a tough thing to admit — that everyone has biases,” he said. “How do you know what your biases are and how do you react?”

Several years ago, a state-run training program for town police departments focused on fairness and impartiality in policing. It began at the top, by training chiefs and instructors, but funding was pulled before the training was able to reach the level of the patrolman. The Oak Bluffs police department is now planning to launch a similar program independently.

Concerns about racial profiling on the Vineyard have centered around the Brazilian immigrant population, Mr. Blake said. But he said that was at least partly due to a misperception that local police departments were deporting illegal immigrants.

“What we found too was that [members of] the Brazilian community weren’t coming forward when they were victims of crimes,” Mr. Blake said. The department has sought to clarify that a person’s immigration status does not influence the enforcement of state law.

Local efforts to address racial bias occur on both the personal and institutional levels. A committee within the NAACP works to mediate local disputes “as discreetly as possible,” Ms. Tankard said. “And it has been successful, mostly.”

Thursday’s march is an opportunity for the NAACP to take a more public stance on racial profiling, as well as violence against police officers, and to add its voice to the wider cause.

As for law enforcement, Mr. Blake said the issue comes down to legitimacy. “People voluntarily follow the law because they feel the people enforcing it are legitimate,” he said.

“We’ve been given the power to take away people’s rights — the freedom of movement,” Mr. Blake added. “I can arrest you. That’s a big responsibility. You need to make sure people are doing it correctly.”