During the unrest in Ferguson that followed the fatal shooting of Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager, by a white police officer, Wellspring United Methodist Church positioned itself as a haven for demonstrators seeking refuge from the chaos on the streets. “We sent coffee to the police and poured milk in people’s eyes when they got tear gassed,” said F. Willis Johnson Jr., the church’s pastor. Nine of the 46 members of the Congressional Black Caucus joined the Wellspring congregation Sunday with music, dance and prayers recalling those weeks of protests and drawing parallels between the events sparked by the shooting last August and those that helped shape the legacy of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Representative Sheila Jackson Lee, a Texas Democrat, said she saw similarities between the civil rights movement led by Dr. King in the 1960s and the criminal justice debate by a new generation of activists that has ignited demonstrations in St. Louis and across the country. “Between 2005 and 2012, incidents of police altercations or killing between police and African-American men happened twice a week,” she said. “During the civil rights movement, those who were seeking to legitimately protest were incarcerated. That’s part of the criminal justice system. They were held simply for expressing their viewpoint. They were subjected to police actions that were brutal.” Ms. Jackson Lee continued: “We have now come to a point where we’re meshing the work of the civil rights activists with our young activists on criminal justice reform.” Read more about how leaders are pushing for reform at state and federal levels this year: sent.pr/1Cyf2OR
Posted on: Wed, 21 Jan 2015 12:13:01 +0000
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