Tacoma mayor, other leaders to talk racial injustice and healing at drive-in event
Tacoma leaders will address racial reconciliation and healing at a drive-in event on Monday amid protests across the country over racial injustice.
The public event will be held at 6 p.m. at the Cheney Stadium parking lot, 2502 S. Tyler St. Attendees are asked to park and stay in their cars. They can tune in to the conversation at 107.9 FM.
Those who can’t make it to the event can watch the live stream at bdlocal.us.
Tacoma’s NAACP, Tacoma’s Ministerial Alliance, OURChurch and Associated Ministries are hosting the conversation, called the Empowerment, Love and Reconciliation Experience. Mayor Victoria Woodards will be part of the discussion.
Rev. Gregory Christopher of Shiloh Baptist Church and the Tacoma Ministerial Alliance said he hopes the event will jump start a conversation around police and criminal justice reform.
“We’re hoping that it’ll take root in Tacoma and we’re hoping it’ll take traction in our state,” he said. “It wouldn’t be the first time that Washington state took the lead on something that was unprecedented and other states followed.”
The idea for the event stemmed from a conversation with Woodards and Christopher after a drive-in church service about a month ago, said OURChurch senior pastor Dean Curry.
“I think we all kind of agreed that the need for racial unity and reconciliation was toward the top of the list (for Tacoma),” Curry said.
Now was the right time to host the event, he said.
“I hope, for my part, I want it to be a moment of repentance — I’m a white man and this has been eye-opening for me, and for a lot of people, that we have more work to do,” he said.
Curry hopes for at least 200 cars. The deaths of George Floyd and Manuel Ellis will also be addressed during the event.
In Tacoma, protests by hundreds of people have continued for a week over police brutality, sparked by the killing of George Floyd at the hands of police in Minneapolis on May 25. Demonstrators also are calling for justice for Manuel Ellis, who died March 3 while being arrested by Tacoma police and whose cause of death was ruled a homicide by the Pierce County Medical Examiner in May.
This story was originally published June 8, 2020 at 11:37 AM.
