The untold story of hope unfolding in Ferguson

Protest leaders in Ferguson and New York and around the US are still feeling deep outrage and sadness a week after the news came from New York City that no criminal charges would be brought against Daniel Pantaleo, the white police officer who choked a black man named Eric Garner to death while arresting him in July. That news came just 10 days after the Ferguson grand jury decision not to indict Darren Wilson for fatally shooting Michael Brown, who was unarmed, on 9 August.

I was in Ferguson when the news came about New York, because Sojourners, the social justice ministry I lead, had convened a retreat there for national Christian leaders and local pastors of all racial backgrounds to look deeply at the foundations of the Ferguson events and reflect upon how the Church must respond. Some of us began to weep – one young man wailing, "This time it was all on video … and it still didn't matter! How can I as a black man bring a black son into this world?" Lament and prayers followed with a resolve to act to
reform our broken criminal justice system.

During our retreat we met local experts who helped us understand the damage done by mainly white authorities to local communities for decades that led to the response that erupted after Michael Brown was killed. We prayed alongside the memorial to the slain teenager. And we met with seven young leaders of the Ferguson protest movement, who have become extraordinary leaders in the few months since Michael Brown’s death.

'Reports of violent protests have overshadowed the non-violent action taking place' Photo: CNS

These leaders are applying the history of non-violent social movements to change their circumstances. The scenes of violent protests in the media unfortunately draw attention away from the examples of these young leaders, who represent a significant majority of protestors. This majority is training fellow protestors in non-violent resistance techniques, calling on Congress to halt the federal Government’s supply of military equipment to local police departments, and beginning to build a network with organisations and activists in other cities across the country.

The desire of these young leaders to change the system is rooted in their personal experiences of police harassment and brutality, amid the educational and economic brutality that young black people like them experience daily. Their stories are transforming for anyone who is willing to listen. I was recently in a meeting convened by the White House with some of these young leaders and President Barack Obama, and I could tell that their powerful witness made a profound impression on him. The president is now committed to forming a new task force and national commission to address these issues. And these young leaders continue to gain allies in the religious community. For example, a statement issued by moral theologian Tobias Winright calling for “a serious examination of both policing and racial injustice in the US” has been signed by more than 300 other Catholic theologians from across the nation.

These tragic deaths have illuminated the ways that young black people in America are treated profoundly differently from young white people. It's a truth everyone in the African-American community understands, but many white Americans – including Christians–are still mostly unaware of or in deep denial about.

It is time to right the unacceptable wrong of black lives being worth less than white lives in our criminal justice system. The Church must work with young leaders like those we met with in Ferguson to help America find its way forward.

Jim Wallis is the president and founder of Sojourners, a Christian movement that campaigns for social justice in the US