Call to remove Black pastors adds to agony in Arbery’s town
BRUNSWICK. GA. » Race was always going to be at the forefront of the trial of three white men charged with chasing and killing Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-yearold Black man, in a coastal Georgia neighborhood.
But a defense attorney’s quickly rejected call to kick out Black pastors, including Jesse Jackson, from the Glynn County courtroom intensified frustrations and added fresh agony to a lingering wound that many in the community had hoped the trial could start healing.
About a mile from the courthouse in the majority Black city of Brunswick, Tony Bryant has been following the proceedings.
Sitting outside the front door of his apartment with peeling teal paint and a view of cranes at the state of Georgia’s port along the East River, he said the way race has seeped into the trial has been discouraging but not surprising — from seating an almost all-white jury when 27% of Glynn County’s 85,000 people are Black to trying to kick out Jackson and other pastors.
“Three white men killed a Black guy. Come on, man. Who did they think was going to be there to support his family?” Bryant said.
The request was especially offensive because pastors play an important role in comforting people who are hurting and demanding justice, said John Perry, a pastor and the former leader of Brunswick’s chapter of the NAACP.
“I believe we’re seeing overwhelming evidence that points us toward guilt, and so there’s been an attempt to take the focus off of the evidence,” Perry said.
After Jackson, the Rev. Al Sharpton and others sat with Arbery’s family in court, defense attorney Kevin Gough asked the judge to kick out the pastors, saying civil rights icons could influence the jury.
“We don’t want any more Black pastors coming in here ... sitting with the victim’s family, trying to influence the jurors in this case,” Gough said last week. The attorneys for the other two men on trial did not join Gough.