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With Arizona’s new immigration law threatening to unleash a wave of racial profiling, Bay Area African-American clergy and community leaders traveled to Phoenix last month for a four-day gathering. The pastors joined community and faith leaders from across the country for a march on Arizona’s Capitol and strategized with local ministers and former Freedom Summer organizers.
“SB 1070 harkens back to the worst times in our nation’s history,” said Rev. Phil Lawson, a civil rights movement veteran. “This law targets Latinos, but who will be next? The same legislature that passed SB 1070 also passed a law requiring President Obama to show his birth certificate to be on the ballot in 2012; and we cannot forget Arizona long refused to honor the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. I firmly believe the black and Latino quest for liberty and justice is one.”
While in Arizona, the group toured detention centers where immigrants are imprisoned, held a press conference at the Capitol and met with Rev. Warren Stewart of Phoenix’s First Institutional Baptist Church. Stewart helped lead the fight to win recognition for MLK Day and opposes SB 1070. The delegation also discussed plans for a 2010 Arizona Freedom Summer with three civil rights organizers of the original 1964 Mississippi Freedom Summer and 20 other ministers from African-American and Latino communities.
Making the journey were Rev. Phil Lawson; Pastor BK Woodson, Bay Area Christian Connection, Oakland; Rev. Gregory Brown, Miracles of Faith Community Church, Oakland; Rev. Jethroe Moore, president, NAACP, San Jose/Silicon Valley Chapter; Gerald Lenoir, executive director, Black Alliance for a Just Immigration; and Linda Burnham, activist and writer. The Interfaith Committee for Worker Justice, Black Alliance for Just Immigration and East Bay Housing Organizations co-organized the delegation.
In the shadow of Arizona’s Capitol, Woodson said, “Instead of laws that divide us from one another and destroy communities, we need to come together and find real solutions so we can build a better future for all of God’s children.”
Article courtesy of Globe Newspapers. For more stories, visit Globe Newspapers online.
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