When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir

by Patrisse Cullors

For four years I have watched my father in faith-based processes where he could own his choices and still be embraced, still be loved. And that practice, that coming together, that speaking the truth of your life from a place beyond shame and having it heard from a place beyond judgment, it didn’t just change my father. It changed we who were witnesses. It changed me who was a witness.

My name is Reverend Starsky D. Wilson. I’m the pastor at St. John’s United Church of Christ in North St. Louis. I heard you are looking for a central place to host the Riders. You can use my church. I pause. And then: Many of us are Queer, are Trans, are gender non-conforming. Reverend Starsky does not pause. All of you are welcome at my church, he says.