Written by Tanya Terry, with photos by Tanya Terry
Featured photo: The Silence the Violence Walk was held in Flint May 24
Just before the Silence the Violence Walk held on Saturday, May 24, starting at the Sylvester Broome Empowerment Village, Minister Cepeda Chatman, senior minister of True Believers United, stated the walk was not just intended to draw attention to the violent acts occurring in the city.
“We can’t stop everything, but we can cut it in half,” said Claude High, president of High Dimension and Sundial Networks, who played a major role in bringing the walk to the area.
High added there were enough people who attended the local walk to make a difference.
“But the urban community across the United States is who I’m trying to reach,” High said.
The local walk falls under the umbrella of the Detroit Chapter, Church of the Messiah, where the pastor is Barry Randolph. Church of the Messiah has been doing the Silence the Violence Walk for 18 years.
“We started Silence the Violence after three young people were killed,” Randolph said. “I did not expect to bury children when I became a pastor.”
As of 2023, Silence the Violence has been in over 30 cities in towns throughout the country.
“I don’t bury young people anymore because we have a grip,” stated Randolph. “Gun violence is not even an issue anymore.”
Randolph said his church helps to provide over 200 units of affordable housing, has a business incubation center, has an 84-member marching band which prides itself in getting young people to put down their guns for musical instruments, has an EV charging station and grow their own food.
“The three people who died lives were not in vain.”
Actor, Author, and Activist Hill Harper said too many Flint mothers have buried their children. Harper talked about how Martin Luther King Jr. pointed out the shared humanity that binds people together.
“I feel the walk is important because I lost my brother to gun violence,” said Charli Neal, a Church of the Messiah member from Warren, Michigan who attended the recent walk.
Neal’s brother, Lionel Neal, was living in Flint at the time.
“He was sitting on his bed eating a bowl of soup,” Charli Neal said sadly.
Police confirmed Lionel Neal was killed when a single stray bullet entered his home, located near Paterson Street and Oren Avenue.
Since then, Charli Neal has supported many anti-violence efforts, including the Silence the Violence Walk and her church’s group Boots on the City, in which many people who have lost their children to violence are able to support each other. She noted there is also a Memorial Room where community members can display their lost loved ones at Church of the Messiah.
Detroit Resident Ivy Nicole is Lionel Neal’s niece. She said it felt “surreal” to be back in Flint for the walk, where her uncle was shot and killed.
“I’m a social worker, so I look at why people are doing what they’re doing,” Ivy Nicole stated. “I look at if there is any mental illness involved. I look at the why.”
The Flint walk started at Sylvester Broome building, proceeded down Saginaw Street to Berston Fieldhouse and ended at Dewey Park, behind Sylvester Broome parking lot area on Saginaw St.
Chatman was optimistic about the effect the walk will have once it ended.
He said those involved in the Detroit Silence the Violence Walk had the mind to take the community back, and were doing just that.
He added: “We already have the building blocks to do what they’ve done.”
