Richmond assembles forces to fight for peace

By the Rev. Andre L. Shumake

As the city of Richmond gears up for its centennial celebration in August and proclaims its promise as a "City of Pride and Purpose," thousands of Richmond families, neighbors and friends grieve for loved ones lost to street violence.

It is a tale of two cities.

The centennial festivities -- with music, speeches, parades and fireworks -- will contrast sharply with the public grief that inhabits Richmond's African American community. It is a grief that lives in the mourners' eyes that are swollen with tears and in the improvised memorials that mark the sidewalks where young victims have been slain.

In 2004, a Richmond inhabitant was killed every 10 days, according to city police. From 2000 to 2004, an average of 30 such deaths occurred each year.

"We want them to live" is the declaration of hope that the Richmond Improvement Association is lifting up with its cohorts in the broad spectrum of civic groups that are organizing the June 4 Richmond Black-on-Black Crime Summit.

To address the community's yearning for peace, safety and prosperity, the city's black clergy in 1999 formed the Richmond Improvement Association, a faith-based, interdenominational coalition of 80 congregations committed to improving quality-of-life in distressed neighborhoods.

The organization's founding principles were inspired by the Montgomery Improvement Association, the community-based coalition that organized Montgomery, Alabama's successful 1955 bus boycott. The church-led initiative, headed by the late Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., was adopted as a model for change in Richmond.

Our vision for change is ambitious. It encompasses revitalization of the Macdonald Avenue business corridor, the development of affordable housing, and jobs creation.

We have learned, however, that our economic development objectives are inextricably tied to -- and constrained by -- Richmond's intractable homicide rates.

In other words, there can be no economic well being without safety. Our community will never secure the capital investment needed for business development and affordable housing unless violent crime in Richmond is eliminated.

The Richmond Improvement Association -- like the Montgomery Improvement Association -- is committed to change. Our guiding principle reads like a warning against the status quo: If you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you've always gotten. It's time to do something different.

Our commitment to change is bolstered by confidence in the traditions of the black church. It was in such tradition that the North Richmond Missionary Baptist Church, for example, operated a Career Center that in one year succeeded in securing full-time employment with benefits for over 300 individuals -- many moving from welfare to work. The church treated job seekers with respect and dignity and envisioned a future for them as competent, productive members of the workforce and their community.

It is that legacy of dignity and struggle that we inherit from previous generations and now summon as we prepare for the June 4 Richmond Black-on-Black Crime Summit. The unprecedented cooperation among black clergy, civic groups and community stakeholders is grounded in the unambiguous resolve to end the senseless killing of Richmond's young black men and women.

The bold declaration we invoke as the theme for our summit -- We want them to live -- is a new commitment to peace in our city.

What would Richmond look and feel like, we ask, if this commitment were to inform the social institutions -- family, schools, churches, law enforcement, health care, commerce and government--that constitute our city?

The Richmond Black-on-Black Crime Summit is the beginning of a three-year comprehensive action plan to prepare the "social space" in Richmond for the peace, safety and prosperity we all pray for.

And in our city's centennial year, this new commitment to peace -- We want them to live -- is an act of spirit in which we can all participate.

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Shumake is president of the Iron Triangle Neighborhood Council and founder of the faith-based Richmond Improvement Association.