CNN: “When defense attorney Kevin Gough attempted to ban Black pastors from the courtroom during the trial for the killing of Ahmaud Arbery, Pastor Jamal H. Bryant said it was an affront to all Black pastors across the country.
Bryant said since the civil rights movement, Black ministers have always been there to comfort grieving families during the trials of white men accused of killing Black people. The trial for the men charged with killing Arbery is no different, he said.”I thought what Attorney Gough said was absolutely unnecessary and distracting and polarizing,” said Bryant, who heads New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Lithonia, Georgia. “He specified by saying ‘Black pastors’ which made it an absolutely amplified racist statement.”
In a show of solidarity against Gough’s comments, Bryant and more than 100 other Black pastors gathered outside the Glynn County Courthouse on Thursday and formed a “Wall of Prayer.” The pastors say they wanted to not only lend their support to Arbery’s family but demand justice in the trial.”