MEMPHIS, Tenn. — People gathered in Handy Park Sunday night for the Memphis City Wide Prayer event created to be a display of unity among citizens as crime concerns continue.
The event was meant as a call to action, where pastors, community leaders and others spoke to the crowd about how to end violence in the city.
“I wanted it to be somewhere where people, even it you’re just walking down Beale and you may not have heard about it, just walk up and engage,” said Ladia Yates, the event’s main organizer.
Yates is a well known Memphis choreographer and also runs the L.Y.E. Academy Dance School.
She and other speakers said the gathering was about using their influence to inspire positive change and put action behind the night’s prayers.
“It’s all about bridging the gap between the politics' side of things and the community,” Yates said. “So if we can all just bring everything together and unify, that would be amazing, but there is a lot of division.”
Speakers at the event said it starts with parents being an example of that change to their children.
“I got kids, and I’m raising them in the city, so I got to show them that it’s all about the city and we’re more than just violence,” said Memphis parent Gary McClain.
The night ended with everyone gathered together in a circle as Yates’ mother made one final impassioned prayer.
“The ones that we can change their minds and heart, that’s all that matters to me,” said “Famous Amos” Brazan, one of the event’s speakers. “Even if it’s one, we did something.”
Yates said she hopes this can be the first of many such events and added she wants to do another one in May, hoping it will grow bigger each time.