Peace Walk Hopes To Highlight Local Black Community In NE Oklahoma City

Peacemakers in Oklahoma City are looking to spread hope. They walked through Northeast Oklahoma City celebrating the beauty and strength of the area on Sunday.

Pastor Derrick Scobey said in times of pain, people turn to their families and their community for help. He said this peace walk will bring together some familiar and new faces.

“We don't all know one another. So, this gives us the opportunity to come together to really get to know one another to break down any barriers, walls that might be there and serve together walk together,” Scobey said.

Scobey said as he walks through Northeast OKC, he thinks about how things have changed since he was a child.

“In the past, we just felt like we were Oklahoma City's stepchildren and that doesn't feel to be the same case in today's time,” Scobey said.

Pastor Scobey said that doesn't mean the work is finished. Gene Rainbolt agrees.

“Any thought that Oklahoma is OK is misconceived. Something I think about all the time is the challenges facing our society. Oklahoma in particular because we're so poor and we have so many challenges,” Rainbolt said.

Rainbolt and Scobey said right now we're in the midst of storms, one being the mass shooting in Tulsa that killed four people. They said the community rallying together is what's important during days when it seems like the rain will never stop.

“We're going to have problems. The powers that be they're going to need to call on us as peacemakers to try and help promote peace,” Scobey said.

“We must all walk together because we're really just one society and if we can join together, we will come much closer to solving our problems and our challenges,” Rainbolt said.

The next peace walk will be on July 3rd at Lake Hefner.