Wakulla residents unite against hatred
CRAWFORDVILLE –Spray-painted black letters were washed away Thursday night as Wakulla County residents returned to one of three churches targeted by racially charged messages this week.
They came to bond and heal.
Packed into New Bridge Hope Missionary Baptist Church, more than 50 people of all races attended a vigil. It was a show of resistance to the sporadic hatred surfacing in Wakulla and a sign that the community will not be shaken by the actions of a few.
Denita Lambou, a Wakulla resident for 14 years, said Thursday served as a message of the unity among the county as a whole.
"This is the way to heal," Lambou said, "Come together and establish the fact that we're a united community and we won't let what one person or two people that are misinformed try to divide us."
The vigil follows a string of racial spray paintings at predominantly black churches this week in Wakulla.
"KKK letters," a reference to America's oldest hate group the Ku Klux Klan, were painted on the side of Mount Olive Primitive Baptist Church on Wednesday. Three days prior, Pilgrim Rest Primitive Baptist Church and New Bridge Hope were vandalized with the letters, along with a truck at Wildwood Golf Course.
But Thursday's gathering did not focus on what happened. It was about moving forward together.
New Bridge Hope Pastor Derek Howard said the recent events don't portray Wakulla County, but they have kindled a spirit of action.
"It's not becoming of Wakulla County. That's not who we are," Howard said. "But what I love about Wakulla County is that we love to work. We know how to work to make a difference and then change things."
Wakulla County Sheriff Charlie Creel told a full church he is meeting daily with FBI and Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigators and vowed justice for the vandalism, which is considered a federal crime.
Creel said one suspect was cleared Wednesday and investigators were continuing to pursue persons of interest.
The reason so many people were gathered to address the crimes, Creel said, has a larger meaning than race.
"We're here because we're all human," he said. "We're here because of what happened this past weekend by the act of an insensitive person, a person who saw an opportunity to try and divide this county, and we're not going to let that happen."
The vigil also comes on the heels of the suspension of five WCSO deputies for insensitive social media remarks following a Missouri grand jury's Nov. 24 decision not to indict a police officer in the shooting of an unarmed teenager in a St. Louis suburb.
Undersheriff Trey Morrison, who has been suspended with pay, attended Thursday's vigil to apologize for his actions. He was met with forgiveness.
"I love this community. I would never do anything to hurt this community," Morrison said, holding back tears. "I've got to start learning. Whatever the problem is, whatever I'm missing I've got to find it. Ya'll, I'm sorry. That's all I can say."
Wakulla County NAACP Organizing Committee President Aniginita Rosier said despite the unsettling issues going on within the county, the spirit and peace of residents there has not been broken.
"To the vandals who chose to wreak havoc in our community, who tried to disrupt our peace, who tried to instill us with a sense of fear," Rosier said. "I stand before them tonight to let them know that them painting the letters 'KKK' on our churches and on our signs will never ever be able to put fear in the hearts of our people."