Executions set tone for this year’s peace pilgrimage

The fourth annual Pilgrimage for Peace in central Arkansas took on a different feeling Sunday with the shadow of last week’s execution and the looming specter of the two set for this evening.

Area activists organize the yearly anti-violence march to “mourn the violence committed in our community and to walk together as active peacemakers.”

Organizer Caroline Stevenson alluded to the circumstances surrounding the walk when she addressed the crowd for the first time.

“This has been a pretty sad and exhausting few weeks for most of us,” Stevenson said. “Today is a day to take a deep breath.”

A group of about 70 marchers gathered in front of the Heifer International complex in downtown Little Rock. At 2:20 p.m., they started marching quietly past the William J. Clinton Presidential Library, through the River Market District and across the Junction Bridge over the Arkansas River, stopping for a ceremony at the Beacon of Peace and Hope sculpture adjacent to the Arkansas Inland Maritime Museum in North Little Rock.

This year’s march took on added significance for members of the Arkansas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, who participate every year.

The walk took place only three days after Arkansas put convicted killer Ledell Lee to death by lethal injection, or as the coalition’s executive director put it: “the murder of Ledell Lee.”

“When we talk about peace it doesn’t stop with crimes citizens perpetrate against each other,” coalition Executive Director Furonda Brasfield said. “In this scenario, it’s the violence the state is perpetrating against its own citizens with the death penalty.”

Sunday’s march attracted a diverse crowd. A rabbi strolled beside a Roman Catholic priest, and just behind them, a man carried a sign that read, “Allah is with us.”

Rabbi Kalman Winnick of Congregation Agudath Achim noted the variety of religions represented at Sunday’s rally.

“I’m also thrilled that some of these things have nothing to do with faith, just humanity,” said Winnick, who also serves as a chaplain for the Little Rock Police Department.