Churches United for Justice, a new coalition of faith leaders in Kansas City, Kansas, is calling on community leaders to address violent crime levels and the effects of historic redlining.
Churches United will have a meeting at 6 p.m. Tuesday, June 7, at Mt. Carmel Church of God in Christ, 2025 N. 12th St., to speak with local leaders, including Sheriff Daniel Soptic, Kansas City, Kansas, Police Chief Karl Oakman, Kansas City, Kansas, Mayor Tyrone Garner and some Unified Government commissioners.
Listening sessions were held in several faith congregations last fall to understand the community problems, from the viewpoint of congregation members, according to a news release from Churches United.
The group voted on the top two issues, which were housing and violence, and started a months-long, citizen-led research process into the nature of these issues and potential solutions, according to the news release.
Now, the organization is asking law enforcement and elected officials to adopt Group Violence Intervention, a strategy to reduce violent crime, and to invest significant funding for affordable housing in historically redlined areas, according to the news release.
“I have been to too many funerals for young kids gunned down in the streets,” said Rev. Charles Cofield, pastor at KC Community Church. “We don’t need more surveillance, we need more intelligence when it comes to policing.”
“Every time we met someone new we heard the same thing over and over – Kansas City is the way it is because we redlined Black folks into poverty and White folks into wealth,” said Sister Mischon Arrington, Oak Ridge Missionary Baptist, a spokesperson on the Housing Research Committee. “And with tens of millions of dollars of federal money floating around, we thought, ‘Well, let’s take this moment to correct history.’”
Churches United for Justice (Churches United) is an ecumenical, nonprofit organization consisting of 15 churches in Wyandotte County joined together to surface and address issues of justice in the Kansas City, Kansas, region.
More than 1,000 people are representing by the churches that are involved in this effort.
Some of the leaders in Churches United for Justice include the Rev. Tony Carter, Salem Baptist Church; the Rev. Andy Frazier, Bonner Springs United Methodist Church; Sister Mischon Arrington, Oak Ridge Missionary Baptist Church; the Rev. Ronald King, Mason Memorial United Methodist Church; and the Rev. Bruce Draper, Bristol Hill United Methodist Church.