Rev. Osagyefo Uhuru Sekou, an activist minister who spent months in Ferguson, Mo. training protesters in non-violent civil disobedience, has moved from Jamaica Plain to St. Louis to continue that work.
Spokesperson Keiller MacDuff told the Gazette that Sekou made the move last month “to base himself there for a while in order to organize with and train the folks on the ground.”
“He’s on the road a lot, delivering lectures, sermons and panels across the country, and has also spent several stints in Baltimore since the killing of Freddie Gray,” MacDuff said.
The Gazette was unable to speak to Sekou, who was delivering talks and traveling, MacDuff said.
Sekou was pastor for Formation and Justice at First Baptist Church at 633 Centre St. He is also the author of the 2012 book “Gods, Gays and Guns: Essays on Race, Religion, and the Future of Democracy,” and a forthcoming book about the 2011 London youth riots.
Sekou has been organizing in Ferguson “on and off” since last August, when the police killing of Michael Brown sparked local and national protests against police brutality. Sekou was arrested in Ferguson last fall in a dramatic incident where he knelt in prayer in the street to keep police and protesters separated.
“He’s really been called to do this work full time,” First Baptist church pastor Rev. Ashlee Wiest-Laird told the Gazette last week. “We were sad to see him go, but also respect that he’s doing really important work and we support him in that.”