Waukegan church leads protest rally in wake of Brown, Garner deaths
Alternately angry and determined, members of Trinity African Methodist Episcopal Church and other churches in Waukegan raised their voices Sunday in what they said was a call for justice.
The group of protesters marched down South Avenue after Sunday's 11 a.m. service at Trinity AME Church and then gathered for a short rally in a park at the corner of South Avenue and Sheridan Road/Genesee Street.
They were reacting to the recent deaths of unarmed black men - like Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and Eric Garner in Staten Island, New York - at the hands of police officers.
"It's time for the church to speak up, and speak out," said the Rev. Janice Brazil Cummings, pastor of Trinity AME Church. "The AME church was born out of protest."
The group chanted phrases that have become rallying cries in recent months, phrases like "hands up, don't shoot," a reference to the death of Brown, and "I can't breathe," a reference to Garner, who said the words while being held by a police officer in a chokehold.
"The words 'I can't breathe' will haunt me for the rest of my life!" Cummings told the crowd.
The Waukegan protest took place as people in different parts of the country continue to march and speak out against police violence. The marches began when separate grand juries decided not to indict the police officers involved in the deaths of Brown and Garner.
Trinity AME leaders referred to Brown and Garner often during the church's 11 a.m. service. The Rev. Tiggs Washington, youth minister at Trinity AME, delivered a message during the service that recalled words spoken by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. on Christmas Eve back in 1967.
"Dr. King said 'This Christmas season finds us a rather bewildered human race. We have neither peace within nor peace without.' You could make the same comments in 2014," Washington said.
Amarah Shakir, a Waukegan resident and a freshman at Northern Illinois University, spoke at the rally that followed. She said she believes young people need to take the lead in calling for positive social change.
"We cannot continue to sit down on our smartphones, or behind our computers," she said.
Trinity AME member and North Chicago resident Richard Fields also attended the rally. He said he believes positive change will come, but that it will take some time. He added that he hopes future discussions will address "black-on-black crime" as well as police violence.
"We have to spread the message everywhere - black lives matter!" he said.