“BLACK LIVES MATTER”, “ENOUGH IS ENOUGH”, “I AM ERIC GARNER”, AND “PRAYER WORKS” are just a few of the protest signs and banners that local clergy and community members will hold at a community-wide rally to be held on Friday, December 12, 2014 beginning at 5:30 pm at the Annapolis City Dock Alex Hailey [sic] Statue.
In solidarity with the national movement against the recent killings of unarmed African Americans by police and the lack of indictments by prosecutors, the pastors of the Annapolis Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance (AIMA) and other local pastors have called on all denominations in the Annapolis and Anne Arundel County to join them to kneel, pray and walk together. The prayer and protest will signify the clergy’s cry for a meaningful review and revision of police use of deadly force and for accountability of police and judicial misconduct.
“It is important to us as pastors in the city of Annapolis and within Anne Arundel County that African Americans are treated like true citizens by law enforcement and our judicial system. So, we are marching in unity as a part of a national dialogue to remind America that ‘Black Lives Matter,’ says Rev. Stephen Tillett, President, AIMA.”
AIMA expects to lead in a symbolic peaceful non-violent march of prayer and protest: from the Alex Haley statute at City Dock, commemorating the arrival of slaves from Africa; up Main Street to Church Circle for a kneel-in and prayer; around to the State House for a stop at the statue of Roger B. Taney, the fifth Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court who wrote in the Dred Scott decision, that blacks “had no rights which the white man was bound to respect; and that the negro might justly and lawfully be reduced to slavery for his benefit”…; and then on to Lawyers Mall for a rally under the statue of Maryland-born U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, the first African American on the high court, who, among other triumphs in the law, was a strong supporter for Constitutional protection of individual rights, especially the rights of criminal suspects against the government.
Speakers include: Rev. Dr. Karen Johnson, Rev. Jerry Colbert, Rev. Bill Hathaway, Bishop Craig Coates, Rev. Mike Berry, Rev. Stephen Tillett and Rev. Johnny Calhoun.
Protestors will board busses the following morning on Saturday, December 13 to join a national protest gathering at 10:30 am at Freedom Plaza in Washington, DC.
Annapolis Interdenominational Ministers Alliance (AIMA) is a group of African American Ministers and Congregations in the Annapolis area that jointly worship quarterly with various denominations throughout the greater Annapolis area.
Source: Annapolis Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance (AIMA)
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