From the St. Louis American
“Moral Monday” began with an act of civil disobedience led by a diverse group of local and national faith leaders, including prominent activist and author Dr. Cornel West. Participants first gathered and prayed at the Wellspring Church, 33 S. Florissant Road, before locking arms and marching the short distance to Ferguson Police Department headquarters.
It was a part of a series of direct actions that took place across St. Louis County Monday after a “Weekend of Resistance,” also known as “Ferguson October.” Ferguson October was organized by the Organization for Black Struggle, Hands Up United, Missourians Organized for Reform and Empowerment, Millennial Activists United, ColorofChange.org and others.
Denise Lieberman, an attorney with the Advancement Project and co-chair of the Don’t Shoot Coalition, addressed clergy and protesters inside the small church. She 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, Lieberman said in a phone interview.
“It’s multi-racial [and] multi-class. It’s Black and white. Rich and poor. Young and old. Gay and straight,” she said.
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 to make this a movement—and not a moment,” she said of Barber.
They marched and sang spiritual hymns while carrying white wooden crosses with the names of those who have lost their lives to police violence or whose death was the result of racial profiling, including Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, John Crawford, Renisha McBride and Michael Brown. West came to support protesters’ call for justice in the shooting death of Brown, an unarmed teen who was fatally shot by Ferguson officer Darren Wilson Aug. 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.
Despite past protests, clergy and protesters stood within arm’s length from police, face-to-face.
“I want to hug you, not hate you,” said Sister Dragonfly, a deaconess with the Rev. Billy Talen and the Stop Shopping Choir, a radical activist choir based in New York City, before embracing a Ferguson police officer. It was one of several pivotal and emotionally charged moments that afternoon.
Clergy and protesters sought to meet with Ferguson Police Chief Thomas Jackson and asked if police were denying them access to a public building. The dynamic of the protest changed. St. Louis County Police, Missouri State Highway Patrol and Ferguson Police made 49 arrests that afternoon. Arrestees included West and the Rev. Osagyefo Sekou of the First Baptist Church of Jamaica Plain, Mass., and others from across the county. Charges ranged from peace disturbances and a refusal to disperse to disorderly conduct.
With his arrest, West made good on a promise declared before the audience of approximately 3,500 who came to hear him deliver the keynote for “Mass Meeting: An Interfaith Service” at Saint Louis University’s Chaifetz Arena.
“I didn’t come here to give a speech, I came to go to jail,” West told the crowd, who erupted with applause.