The United Christian Leadership Ministry is hosting a rally Thursday night designed to offer solutions, to rally support, and educate the public on the pandemic of gun violence.
President of the ministry, the Rev. Lewis Stewart, says the "Light the Way" campaign is chaired by Lentory Johnson, who lost her son to gun violence when he was shot outside the Boys & Girls Club last summer.
Stewart says Johnson will speak at the rally, along with Mayor Lovely Warren, City Council President Loretta Scott, Legislator Ernest Flagler-Mitchel, who lost a cousin to gun violence, plus representatives for state and federal officials, among others.
Stewart, calls the drug and gun problem "gunocide," and at the rally they'll be encouraging members of the community to do what they can in terms of undermining the war that is going on out on the streets here and around the country.
He said there are young black men who are dying, and young black men are also the perpetrators.
"We've had since 1980 to 2015, 324,000 black males who have died due to gun violence," he said.
Stewart says that is more than all the American casualties from Korea, Vietnam, through the Iraq war up to this time.
And since 2000, there have been more than 673 homicides in the city involving black youths murdered by black youths.
The rally begins at 6:30 Thursday at the Inner Faith Gospel Tabernacle Church on York Street.