Civil Rights Activist The Rev. Jamal Bryant said Monday that he will have a peace rally on April 24 to mark one year since Freddie Gray died from injuries suffered while in police custody and the unrest that took place after his funeral.
Bryant, founder and pastor of the Empowerment Temple AME Church in Park Heights, said the rally is the only one supported by Gray’s family.
He said the Gray family has been “champions of peace and really want to see the city be able to move on beyond the tragedy of what happened to their son and brother.”
A member of Gray’s family is expected to be at the rally.
Bryant said the rally will begin on the back side of Mondawmin Mall followed by a march to Penn-North, the center of last year’s unrest, and then march to City Hall.
He seaid he thinks the rally – two days before the city’s primary election - will serve as a “wake-up call and an alarm clock” that “all is not well because all is quiet;” citing Baltimore’s 16,000 vacant properties, the heroin crisis and large number of high school dropouts.
“There’s still a lot up in the air,” he said. “The only people that seem to be benefiting at this hour seem to be those at Under Armour but those who are under privileged and underserved seem to have been forgotten.”
Bryant was referring to a $535 million TIF being discussed by city leaders to support the redevelopment of Port Covington into Under Armour’s proposed new headquarters in South Baltimore.
Freddie Gray was arrested April 12, 2015 and died April 19 from injuries suffered in the back of a police van. His death prompted several days of peaceful protests that turned violent by the end of the week.
Bryant delivered an impassioned eulogy at Gray’s funeral April 27 that some said led to the unrest that grabbed national attention shortly afterward. But Bryant called it unfair to make him the scape goat for a broken justice system.