In 2006, Min. Jasiri X and Khari Mosley of One HOOD attended The Gathering in hopes that they could bring attention to the cause of Pamela Lawton, who claims a Pittsburgh Police officer pulled his weapon on her then 7-year-old daughter. Their efforts turned out to be so convincing that this year “The Gathering” will come to them.
BRINGING JUSTICE HOME—From left: Minister Jasiri X, Paradise Gray, Rev. Cornell Jones and Darnell Drewery of One HOOD.
“It’s one of those things where I truly believe, that the favor of God is on our side,” said Rev. Cornell Jones of One HOOD. “Now, because we’ve been obedient, staying in the fight with the whole Lawton situation, what’s going on now is that we’re blessed to take it to a national level.”
The Gathering was founded by actor turned social activist Harry Belafonte upon hearing of the arrest of a five-year-old girl who disrupted a Florida kindergarten class in 2005. While Belafonte didn’t commit to hosting a Gathering in Pittsburgh until about a month ago, he expressed his feelings about the Lawton case during an interview on the “NAACP Issues” radio show last October.
“To the people of Pittsburgh, you are really not alone,” said Belafonte. “The people of this nation know the story of the struggle that you are beginning to wage against police oppression and police brutality. What that cop did to our little girl is not going to be tolerated by the people this nation. We are on your side, we will be there to be a part of your struggle, cause your struggle is our struggle. If you don’t succeed, we won’t succeed. We’re on the way.”
The three-day conference will feature a kick-off event at the Shadow Lounge Aug. 3 and an interfaith gathering and conference at a location to be announced. The event is planned in conjunction with Lawton’s pending disorderly conduct trial, which is scheduled for Aug. 7. Minister Jasiri X says the timing couldn’t be better.
“We felt strategically that the dates Aug. 3-5 made sense because you have Ms. Lawton’s trial starting Aug. 7 and it would give us the opportunity to use the momentum of national people coming to Pittsburgh and being able to bring people together,” said the minister.
“A lot of times you go to conferences and you might leave and don’t really leave with anything to do. With this one, a couple days later we’re going to ask you to meet in front of the courthouse on the seventh. It gives us an immediate thing we can do to fight against injustice.”
The Gathering is also meant to serve as an opportunity for younger leaders to join forces with elders and also for disadvantaged social groups to come together and strategize for change. Members of One HOOD say the collaboration is essential, particularly to bring attention to a case that has been repeatedly postponed and may have lost some people’s attention.
“We have to show the system that we’re a new type of generation where time is on our side,” said Darnell Drewery of One HOOD. “Before, it was when things like this came up against the Black community, at time people just faded away. That’s why they want that time so they’ll postpone it and postpone it because eventually it will just fade away. Now, with this new generation, give us that time, because we’ll just mobilize more.”
“A lot of the times what happens is they make what’s going on in our community a Black problem, but violence in particular is as American as apple pie,” said Paradise Gray of One HOOD. “We’re stepping up to our responsibility, we’d like to see everyone accept their role and help us fix what’s going on. Today it’s our children—tomorrow it’s going to be yours.”
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(Posted by Shirley Muhammad) Rating
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