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The Tulsa community is invited to honor the life and loss of Tyre Nichols on Sunday, January 29, at 4 p.m. at Morning Star Baptist Church. Let us never forget his name.
A diverse group of interfaith and community leaders along with singers and musicians will hold a space for healing the collective emotional trauma of this loss and of the continuation of police violence in America. No words can express the feelings of rage and sorrow at this systemic inhumanity.
The Service will be live on Morning Star Baptist Church’s Facebook page.
“After the national release of the footage of Tyre Nichols, who was beaten and died in the custody of Memphis police, many in our community have been retraumatized regarding their own experiences of and fears of police violence,” said Rev. Marlin Lavanhar of All Souls Unitarian Church in Tulsa.
Dr. Tiffany Crutcher, whose brother Terence was killed by police in Tulsa in 2016 said, “The pain of losing a loved one at the hands of people sworn to serve and protect never gets easy. My heart breaks for Tyre Nichols, his parents, son, family, and the entire Memphis community.”
In the service, organizers will be holding every Black and Brown child, adult and parent in America in our hearts as we gather across our differences of faith, ethnicity and experience.
“Although racial disparities in policing exist and must be addressed, we have undeniable evidence that there’s a culture of unjust practices when policing black and brown people,” said. Rev. Dr. Rodney A. Goss, the Pastor of Morning Star Baptist Church.
All who want to send their prayers and blessings to the Nichols family and our nation are welcome and encouraged to come together for this vigil.
Sponsors for the Tyre Nichols vigil:
Sponsors for the event include: Morning Star Baptist Church; Tulsa Metropolitan Ministry; The Terence Crutcher Foundation; The Greenwood Cultural Center; Tulsa Black Mental Health Alliance; The Human Rights Commission; The North Tulsa Ministers Conference; The Jewish Federation; The Oklahoma Center for Community & Justice; The Center for Public Life at Phillips Seminary; The Oklahoma Baptist State Convention; The National Baptist Convention USA; CAIR – OK; First Baptist Church North; Metropolitan Baptist Church; All Souls Unitarian Church; Fellowship Congregational Church; Temple Israel; Historic Vernon AME; College Hill Presbyterian Church; New Jerusalem Baptist Church; Antioch Baptist Church; Fellowship Lutheran Church; Agape Outreach Ministries; Friendship Baptist Church; I John Fellowship; The Church of Jesus Christ Latter Day Saints; St. Paul’s United Methodist Church; Church of the Restoration Unitarian Universalist; Black Wall Street Times; Fulton Street Books and Coffee; Compassionate Tulsa; World Won Development; The Restorative Justice Institute of Oklahoma; House Church Tulsa; Blue Flame 47 Ministries; Standpipe Hill Strategies, LLC; Boston Avenue United Methodist Church; and Forest Park Christian Church.
The Service will be live on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/MorningStarBaptistChurchTulsa.