DALLAS — Anger is turning into action after 1,000 cars caravanning in a pro-police “Back the Blue” ride paraded into a predominantly Black Oak Cliff church closely aligned with the Black Lives Matter movement.
Members of Dallas Black Clergy for Safety, Equity and Justice announced they will host their own counter caravan through Oak Cliff Sunday.
“They had a thousand trucks and cars. We got a thousand more,” said Rev. Kamilah Hall Sharp, pastor of The Gathering.
Sharp and other members of the group spoke on a virtual press conference Thursday, four days after the incident at Friendship West Baptist Church, which Sharp called a “coordinated attack of intimidation.”
Friendship West pastor Frederick Haynes said his church was “stabbed in the back by a ‘Back the Blue’ cruise that misrepresented themselves to my staff as a car club.”
He said organizers had asked a staff member if they could use the church parking lot as a rest stop for no more than 30 vehicles.
An estimated 1,000 or more vehicles showed up and Haynes said no one was told it was a pro-police convoy.
“A convoy in the name of backing the blue in the year of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and countless others tried to shut down Friendship West – a church I might add that unites Jesus with justice and through our ministries and mission affirms that Black lives matter,” Haynes said.
Organizers of the caravan said there was a miscommunication and they maintain their clubs are not political.
Haynes said they could have stopped at plenty of other large parking lots.
“Make no mistake, the violation of Friendship West was not accidental or incidental,” Sharp said.
The incident could prove to be a tipping point for Dallas Black Clergy, who not only announced their “Ride In for a New Dallas” caravan on Sunday.
They issued a call to action for all of Dallas.
They want the City of Dallas and Dallas County to immediately adopt their 10-point plan to address policing and public safety concerns.
They also want the city and county to reallocate at least 60% of the budget now set aside for policing and invest it instead in the Black community to address what Sharp called a "decades-long history of targeted and intentional economic disenfranchisement, terrorism and incarceration unleashed on the Black people of Dallas."
“Equity conversations, resolutions, street-naming changes, pulpit swaps, diversity dinners and similar events not clearly and intentionally focused on these goals are to be considered distractions and have nothing to do with the ultimate goal of the full liberation of Black people in our city,” she said.
Dallas Black Clergy has asked Dallas City council member Casey Thomas to facilitate a meeting with Mayor Eric Johnson, City Manager T.C. Broadnax, and other Black city council members.
“It’s time to make some things happen as opposed to wondering naively why they keep happening,” Haynes said. “You know why they keep happening. Because this is a city just like this country, to remix scripture, that was born in racism and shaped by white supremacy.”
Rev. Michael W. Waters of Abundant Life African Methodist Episcopal Church said it is time for Black pastors across Dallas to “stop acquiescing.”
“This time demands that we take our organization beyond the church walls and take them to the seats of power,” he said.
Sunday’s caravan will end at Friendship West to “reclaim” their sacred space, Haynes said.
“I just want y’all to know, Dallas, we are stirred up. You can’t lock down who God raises up and sets free,” Haynes said. “They came to intimidate us? No. They inspired us.”