Growing number of African American pastors express support for Occupy movement
By Hamil R. Harris, Published: January 20
As the nation observed Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the Rev. Jamal Harrison Bryant was outside the Federal Reserve’s headquarters in the District, protesting.
And at the public radio station WPFW (89.3 FM), the Rev. Graylan S. Hagler used his airtime Monday to note the similarities between the Occupy Wall Street movement and those who camped in “Resurrection City,” in the shadows of the Washington Monument, after King was slain.
A growing number of African American pastors in the Washington area, including the Rev. Carroll A. Baltimore Sr., president of the Progressive National Baptist Convention, have embraced the Occupy movement. In December, leaders of Occupy D.C. left their encampments at McPherson Square and Freedom Plaza to worship at Empowerment Temple, Bryant’s church in Baltimore. Hagler has held services on Freedom Plaza. Others bring food and clothing to the protesters. And Bryant, who ministers to many in the Maryland suburbs, co-founded Occupy the Dream with former NAACP leader Benjamin Chavis.
The pastors’ pleas for economic justice sound a lot like King’s.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/african-american-pastors-express-support-for-occupy-movement/2012/01/18/gIQAyofFEQ_print.html
