100 attend 'Black Lives Matter' panel at N.J. church

Four days after two "Black Lives Matter" signs were ripped down and stolen outside a Cherry Hill church, more than 100 people gathered to hear a panel of local leaders discuss the challenges facing black Americans and efforts to bring attention to inequality.

"Most people don't take the time to understand and get to know black America," Camden County Freeholder Jonathan Young Sr., one of the six panelists, said at the Unitarian Universalist Church. There is a misconception, he said, that African Americans are lazy or want to be on welfare.

"In fact, it's just the opposite," Young said, raising the example of a young mother trying to get by on low wages who may not be able to get a higher-paying job.

Other speakers on the panel, which the church organized, pointed to the national Black Lives Matter movement, which has sought to raise awareness of inequality, particularly in the way police treat minority communities and suspects.

Gloucester County NAACP president Loretta Winters said the movement's name does not imply that other lives don't matter.

"Black lives do matter. White lives matter, too," she said. But she asked the crowd to rank a white person's life on a scale of 1 to 10 and compare it with a black person's. A black life, she said, would rank lower than a white one.

"They see your color, and who you are the way God made you, before they see anything else," she said of how whites view African Americans.

The forum came as police continue to investigate who stole the "Black Lives Matter" signs - twice - that advertised the event. Police said that they were investigating the crimes as thefts, but that no arrests had been made.

The first sign was taken from outside the church the night of Feb. 10. Two replacement banners, which also read "Black Lives Matter," were stolen from the same spot Sunday.

Rohn Hein, the church's lay leader for social responsibility, said the vandalism signified hidden racism in the community. In a statement Tuesday, Young called those responsible "cowards."

Michael Michele, 44, of Mount Laurel, said the vandalism angered her at first. Then, she said, she realized it was a blessing in disguise: It would draw more people to the forum to talk about race.

"So what you tried to stop," she said, "you fueled it more."

Kate Sloan, 61, of Merchantville, a member of the church's board of trustees, said the vandalism had shaken the church.

Sloan said before the event that she had tried to educate herself on the Black Lives Matter movement.

For example, she said, when a black person is shot, it seems to matter less to the public than when a white person is shot.

Black lives, she said, "should not matter less."

The other panelists were Pennsauken Deputy Mayor Rick Taylor; Willingboro Police Lt. Aaron Hawkins; the Rev. Eric Dobson, outreach coordinator for the Fair Share Housing Center; and the Rev. Kamili Leath of Destiny Church in Moorestown.

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