Baltimore faith leaders reflect 10 years after the death of Freddie Gray
Following the death of Freddie Gray in 2015, much of Baltimore was in pain. But some say faith carried the city through.
Gray died on April 19, 2015, days after he was injured while in the custody of Baltimore Police. His death sparked unrest in the city and protests across the country.
Multiple churches and community centers located at the center of that unrest are believed to have played a key role by becoming safe havens for the community to grieve, unite and heal.
Gray's funeral draws thousands of people
First Mt. Calvary Baptist Church stands at the center of Baltimore's Sandtown-Winchester neighborhood. It's not far from where Gray grew up, and the exact spot where he was brutally arrested in 2015.
"It brought a lot of riots. Brought a lot of attention to Baltimore, but specifically Sandtown. Plain and simple, it was a place with little hope during that time," said Rev. Dr. Derrick DeWitt, the senior pastor of First Mount Calvary Baptist Church.
Unrest spread across the city following Gray's death, and his funeral at New Shiloh Baptist Church drew thousands of people weeks later.
"The church was full of a community of not just people who knew him, but people that did not know him," said Rev. Daniel Carter, the assistant pastor at New Shiloh Baptist Church.
"I did not know the family. I just knew the story," said Dr. Harold Carter Jr., pastor at New Shiloh Baptist Church.
Dr. Carter and his son, Rev. Daniel Carter, said the funeral was moving and peaceful, but later that day is when they remember the unrest reached its peak. Clergy were called back out to their church to help calm things down.
"The seminal moment"
"They asked, 'What will you do?' I just took the authority and said, 'We're about to go out in the street,'" said Bishop Dr. Donté Hickman Sr., pastor at Southern Baptist Church and president of the Mary Harvin Transformation Center Community Development Corp.
"We had about 20 or 50 preachers, pastors, bishops and community leaders ready to march, and that's what we did," Dr. Carter said.
Arm in arm, they prayed and marched with gang members and neighbors, urging the community to stand up with their neighborhood.
"But the seminal moment was at the intersection of Penn and North," Dr. Carter explained. "A police brigade in full riot gear, beating on their vest, you know, helmets. And again, we're looking through smoke, so we don't know what they're coming to do to us."
"They said to us, 'There's a fire right up the street on North Avenue. The people won't let us get to it. They're throwing rocks. We don't want to hurt anybody. Could you all lead the way?" Dr. Hickman recalled.
Dr. Carter recalled how the group of officers said, "If you guys will turn around and do a U-turn and go back from where you've come, then we can allow our brigade to come through and make way for the fire department to come and put out the fire. You all take the lead. We'll follow you."
So they did. Clergy led police officers, firefighters and other emergency responders back into the neighborhood to put out multiple fires.
"That day ministry was defined for me," Rev. Carter said.
Faith to rebuild, becoming a light
"As we were on the corner talking about our next steps, somebody told me our building was on fire on Chester Street," Hickman explained. "Our senior center, which was 50% complete at the time."
In the hours after the march and funeral for Freddie Gray, the community center and apartment complex went up in flames.
"I was enraged at first, but there was a calm," Hickman said. "I took solace, and I had faith that we would rebuild it."
Ten years after the fire, the Mary Harvin Transformation Center and senior center was rebuilt, and it still stands.
"The real miracle was not that it was rebuilt a year to the date of the fire, but that it was fully leased up with residents on day one," Hickman said. "Despite the tragedy, the violence, the community upheaval, the people still wanted to live in the community of their rearing."
The unrest, the fire and the conversations that followed all became a catalyst for what happened in Baltimore over the next decade. Churches became the focal point of revitalization, redevelopment and revival.
"Our mantra has been restoring people as we rebuild properties and the fire that night became a light for a community that experienced decades of neglect and darkness," Hickman said.
"What we've had to do as pastors is try to figure out ways to bring help and hope to this community ourselves," DeWitt said.
"Business leaders and the like developed a grassroots plan of developing several communities in East Baltimore," Hickman said. "It's called the East Baltimore Revitalization Plan. There will be affordable healthcare and job training and jobs in this facility, a $32 million project in a community that has not seen that kind of investment."
Additional investments into more health clinics, housing developments and other programs in parts of the city grew from one of Baltimore's most difficult times.
More work to be done after Freddie Gray's death
Although a lot of progress and change have come to Baltimore following the death of Freddie Gray, church leaders believe the work is far from over.
"There has been slow, slow but perhaps steady progress," Dr. Carter said.
Dr. Carter and Rev. Carter explained that after the unrest, New Shiloh became a place for community meetings and conversations to continue.
"Subsequent for meetings, for the feds, for community organizations, for gangs, subsequent gang meetings and things of that nature," Dr. Carter said. "So, it had that kind of an effect. And again, to this day, to some degree, it still does."
Although each pastor represents different congregations, their mission is still the same.
"We are soldiers in the army of the Lord, we have to fight although we die, we have to hold up the blood-stained banner, we have to hold it up until we die," said Dr. Carter.
"I'll hear from heaven, and I'll heal the land. I think that is part and parcel while we're still here today and still have hope for a brighter future," Hickman said.
