Local News

Ferguson, Missouri Pastors To Visit Fort Worth

March 16, 2015 / 8:16 PM CDT / CBS Texas

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FORT WORTH (CBS 11 NEWS) - As the U.S. Justice Department moves forward with plans to enhance relations between police and communities in select cities across the U.S., Fort Worth pastors are beginning a faith-based effort to unite various cities like Ferguson and Cowtown in justice programs.

"We were Ferguson before Ferguson," said Rev. Kyev Tatum with Southern Christian Leadership Conference. "And there were other Fergusons before Ferguson."

Tatum says Fort Worth has had its share of racially charged in-custody deaths like the Taser death of 24-year-old Michael Jacobs in 2009.

That incident -- and others like it -- ties Fort Worth to other cities now under Justice Department scrutiny for poor police/race relations.

But, Tatum says church leaders attending the 50th anniversary of the Selma, Alabama March realized the current movement to bridge race relations with police departments is happening without them.

"You know the difference between '65 and 2015?" Tatum asked. "In '65, there was a moral cause but the church was leading it. 2015 the streets are leading it. The church has been behind the this stained glass window looking out."

And so, pastors from Fort Worth's predominately minority neighborhoods will bring church leaders from Ferguson here to North Texas for a justice rally.

They're meeting this week to make plans that would also include Ferguson shooting victim Michael Brown's father.

Fort Worth pastors would go to Ferguson for similar rallies.

The other five cities under justice department scrutiny -- Ferguson, Missouri, Pittsburgh, Minneapolis Gary, Indiana and Birmingham, Alabama -- will eventually be asked to join in with the church-led movement as well.

"Same mess, different address," Tatum said. "But if we network together, what you provide from your community can help my community and what I have can help another community."