EDITORIAL/‘One Philadelphia’
With radical groups nationwide calling for the defunding of police departments, Philadelphia Mayor James Young two weeks ago at a peaceful protest here marking the police killing of an unarmed black man in Minnesota called for "one Philadelphia."
The three-term mayor, a Pentecostal minister, prayed a prayer of peace and unity at the conclusion in front of the Neshoba County Courthouse, which you don't hear being done these days.
Before he prayed, Young said he was pleased with the outcome, the behavior, the attitude, the focus, saying it "makes me proud to be your representative."
"We have to tell another message to the world," he said. "Philadelphia is changing, but we ain't there yet, but we're headed that way."
He said the group could come together "black, white, red" and "speak peace to our nation. This is hallowed ground where we're standing," he said, referring to the 1964 law-enforcement-involved murders of the three young men registering blacks to vote here.
"It pains me we have to do this anyway" because of what's going on in the world, Young said.
He encouraged the young people to get an education because that can't be taken away and it allows them to be who "God has called you to be."
"We pray a prayer of peace in our country, in our cities all over this land," he began. "We pray a prayer of love and unity for all that hear our voice."
"We thank you, oh God, for letting us be an example of peaceful protest, which is a Constitutional right that has been given us. We say thank you right now!"
The mayor concluded his prayer to a round of robust amens:
Young had told the group he was going to pray a prayer of peace and unity for the community, for families and for the young men and women that "we stand firm on what is right, not what you think, but what is right. And God is going to continue to bless us."
During the rally, the mayor had encouraged the multi-racial group mostly made up of young people to "practice what's right," saying all people are part of God's creation and that all people — "red, yellow, back and white" — deserve respect.
The group of about 50 was protesting peacefully the death of George Floyd in Minnesota last week where a police officer involved in his arrest is accused of murder by kneeling on his neck and suffocating him.
The crowd chanted "I can't breathe" and "Stand for what's right." They marched around the courthouse chanting, among other things, "Black lives matter" and "No justice, no peace." Some speakers addressed what they see as racial inequality and the oppression of black people which they want to see political leaders address.
A speaker invoked the name of James Chaney, one of three young men murdered by a gang of law enforcement and the Ku Klux Klan here on the night of June 21, 1964. The trio was part of a black voter registration effort and they were here investigating the Klan's burning of the Mt. Zion United Methodist Church five days earlier.
Forty-one years to the day after the murders that awoke the nation, Edgar Ray Killen, a part-time Baptist preacher and sawmill operator, was convicted by a Neshoba County jury of orchestrating the murders and was sentenced to 60 years in prison. He died there in 2018 at age 92.
The protesters two weeks ago said they stood in solidarity with other protesters who convened across the nation, some of the protests turning violent in cities such as Washington, D.C., New York City, Atlanta and St. Louis where there was looting and burning.
"Philadelphia, we are here to send a message to Minneapolis, to New York, to send a message that we are trying to affect change," Young said. "The violence must cease. Whether it is black on black or white on white or whatever, it must cease."
Mayor Young is a voice of reason and his "one Philadelphia" is the right message because we are one in the human race, the sons and daughters of Adam made in the image of God. Listen to the anguish.