Moral Monday – the final day in the Weekend of Resistance, also known as Ferguson October – began with an act of civil disobedience led by local and national faith leaders of diverse backgrounds.
Participants first gathered at the Wellspring Church, 33 S Florissant Rd., before marching to the Ferguson Police Department.
Denise Lieberman, an attorney with the Advancement Project and co-chair of the Don’t Shoot Coalition, addressed clergy and protestors inside the small church. Lieberman told the group that their direct action was modeled after North Carolina’s “Moral Monday” movement. The clergy-led movement, which includes a broad base of citizens, developed as a result of people’s discontent with the actions of their government.
“It’s multi-racial and multi-class,” Lieberman said. “It’s black and white. Rich and poor. Young and old. Gay and straight.”
She brought greetings from the Rev. William J. Barber II, head of the North Carolina State Conference of the NAACP and organizer of the “Moral Monday” movement, who was unable to attend the protest.
“He encourages us to protest today and to make this a movement – and not a moment,” she said of Barber.
They marched and sang hymns while carrying wooden white crosses marked with the names of those who have lost their lives to police violence or as the result of racial profiling: Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, John Crawford, Renisha Mcbride and Michael Brown.
West and other clergy came to Ferguson to support protestors’ call for justice in the shooting death of Brown, an unarmed teen, who was fatally shot by Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson on August 9.
“We want them to know that there are some older generations, brothers and sisters of all colors, who are willing to put their bodies on the line – so that justice can move down like water and righteousness a mighty stream,” West said, quoting Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
It rained heavily that day. Police tape that typically separated police from protestors rested in a puddle on the parking lot at the Ferguson Police Department. Clergy and protestors stood within arm’s length of police – face-to-face.
“I want to hug you, not hate you,” said Sister Dragonfly, a deaconess with Rev. Billy and The Stop Shopping Choir, a radical activist choir based in New York, before embracing a Ferguson police officer. It was one of several pivotal and emotionally-charged moments that afternoon.
“We’re here because we love the young folk,” West told police before his arrest.
Local clergy leaders who confronted the police included the Rev. Traci Blackmon, Rabbi Susan Talve the Rev. Starsky Wilson, though they did not continue the act of civil disobedience to the point of arrest.
The clergy sought to meet with Ferguson Police Chief Thomas Jackson and, when stopped, asked police if they were being denied access to a public building. At the police line, clergy prayed and challenged the police to atone for the deaths of the unarmed black men killed by their brothers.
When the clergy advanced, police started making arrests, charging them with third-degree assault of a law enforcement officer and disturbing the peace.
St. Louis County Police self-reported a total of 13 arrested with the clergy group at 12:20 p.m., though not all were clergy, and a total of 49 arrests, on various charges, throughout the protest.
Clergy arrested included West, former St. Louisan Rev. Osagyefo Sekou of the First Baptist Church of Jamaica Plains, local African Methodist Episcopal Pastor Renita Lamkin, Pastor Jamal H. Bryant from Baltimore and Pastor Michael McBride, director of PICO National Network’s Live Free Campaign.
Their peaceful protest was a part of a series of direct actions taking place across the St. Louis region on Monday. West gave the keynote address on Sunday for Mass Meeting: An Interfaith Service at Saint Louis University’s Chaifetz Arena, then participated in a direct action when protestors peacefully occupied SLU’s main Frost Campus in Midtown St. Louis.
With his arrest, West made good on a promise declared before the audience of about 3,500 at the Chaifetz Arena.
“I didn’t come to come here to give a speech, I came to go to jail,” West told the crowd, who erupted with applause.
Follow this reporter on Twitter: @BridjesONeil. E-mail this reporter: boneil@stlamerican.com.
Follow this reporter on Twitter: @BridjesONeil | E-mail this reporter: boneil@stlamerican.com
