Unite KC Walk for Unity Recap
When Westsider Jodee Merriman showed up for Saturday’s Unite KC Walk for Unity, she didn’t know what to expect…or, who she’d meet.
Upon arrival, she (and about 500 others who came from all over the Kansas City metropolitan area) was asked to segregate herself on one side of the field according to the color of her skin. The request was intended to make everyone uncomfortable and remember the history of racial division in our city.
Photos by Jeremy Dykeman of JD Creative (unless otherwise noted)
“Today, I am asking you to make relationships,” Ray Jarrett, Executive Director of Unite KC, shouted through a bull horn. “We believe in unity, we believe in people understanding each other, in people communicating with one another, and that is the focus of today’s event.”
Photo by Mark Honer of DHTV Digital
With that bold call to action, the two sides came together in the center of the field and made new friends.
Merriman met a young woman named Jordan. On the surface they could not be more different. “Jordan is a young African American woman who is finishing out her high school experience with hopes of one day attending a historically Black college,” Merriman explained. “I’m a Caucasian professional woman—well beyond my college years. Jordan and I are an unlikely pair to say the least, but we have an undeniable love for Jesus.”
Their shared faith became the basis for a conversation filled with hope, honesty, laughter, and dreams as they walked together to the MLB Urban Youth Academy. As they talked, they also found out that while Jodee is a school counselor, Jordan dreams of becoming a teacher, they both love travel, worked at fast food for their first jobs, and both enjoy going crabbing!
As the walkers traversed the one-mile course together, they were confronted with another reminder of our difficult past: a red line of sand down the center of the sidewalk representing Kansas City’s former restrictive housing covenants (often referred to as red-lining). Encouraged to kick, scuff, and smear that sand as they went along, the action became a signal to the world that we can’t change the past, we DO have the power to change our future.
“For me, that was the moment that gave me the goosebumps,” said Westside Family Church Pastor Randy Frazee. “I was walking with John Brooks from Macedonia Baptist and when we were scuffing out the red line together, John suddenly shouted ‘No more red line!’”
Westside has been working to build a relationship with Macedonia Baptist Church for the past three years. Frazee has made it clear on multiple occasions during that time that working toward racial unity is a priority for the church.
““Westside is not going to sit this out. We are going to press forward out of obedience to Jesus,” he said. “This is not about joining a fight—it’s about providing a positive solution. We are going to live now like we will live then. Revelations 5 tells us we will all live together in eternity.
From a strategic point of view, we recognize the walk is a public display. We are a city on a hill, and we need to show the world what we are doing and what we stand for…not what we are against.” ”
Frazee said he was proud of number of Westsiders who not only showed up for the Walk for Unity, but began the hard work toward racial healing through relationship building.
“I was very excited to hear how a group of our Westside young adults showed up for the walk and met a group of other young adults from Macedonia Baptist Church and decided to go out to lunch after the event,” he added.
Photos by Gwen Kennedy
“That's what Unite KC is about,” Dayton Moore, Royals General Manager and Unite KC founder, shouted from the makeshift bleacher podium at the end of the event. “It's about learning from one another. It's about being calm, listening, trying to understand everybody's hurts, and then give it away to God. And that's the beauty of Unite KC. That's why we're so grateful that you're all here today. This is just the beginning.”
Unite KC has 11 different sub-groups called “domains” that are organized by market sector (i.e. housing, media/communication, criminal justice, business, education, etc.). Each domain is charged with looking at their specific industry and identifying ways they can fight evil with good and help encourage, lift up, and bring equal opportunity to people of color. Unite KC believes that taking action prompts heart transformation, builds community, and ultimately leads to healing in our city. The public is encouraged to learn more about the Unite KC domains at unitekc.org and discover how they can get involved to “Do One Good Thing,” toward racial healing and unity in Kansas City.