Pastors plan an anti-violence campaign

Pastors and other community organizers plan to walk some of Baltimore’s most violent blocks on weekend nights from 8 p.m. until 1 a.m. this summer.

Midnight basketball tournaments and a new community center for children named for Freddie Gray not far from Gilmor Homes, where he was arrested, are aimed at uniting the city. Gray, 25, died from an injury sustained in police custody prompting protests and rioting.

On Father’s Day, the Rev. Jamal H. Bryant wants to lead a rally through the streets — clergy, gang members and children alike — bearing coffins, a solemn “visual reminder” of the violence. Baltimore recorded 43 homicides in May, the worst month Baltimore has seen in 40 years .

Bryant and the Rev. Cornell Showell of the First Apostolic Faith Church announced the anti-crime proposals Tuesday night to a gathering of other religious leaders at the Empowerment Temple, where Bryant is pastor.

The weekend night walks are set to begin on June 18, Bryant said.

The Freddie Gray Youth Empowerment Center is under development in Bolton Hill, he said.

The temple has raised $27,000 and is seeking volunteers to serve food and teachers to instruct children on reading and computer coding this summer, he said.

Details on the basketball tournaments and the march are to be announced later.

Clergy invited to Baltimore on Tuesday include the Rev. Jeffrey Brown, who led the Boston TenPoint Coalition, a faith-based crime-fighting effort that helped drop that city’s homicides from 152 in 1990 to 31 in 1999, in what many called the “Boston Miracle.” Brown led a “street training” effort in Baltimore on how to best engage young people.

Brown said clergy must take their roles in the community to heart to change the culture on the streets.