To the editor:

I, too, attended the “Service of Solidarity” at St. Luke African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church in Lawrence on Sunday, June 21, with Rev. Verdell Taylor presiding, after introductions by Thad Holcombe, coordinator for Lawrence area clergy. We remembered the nine people massacred at Mother Emanuel AME church in Charleston, S.C.

I spoke about President Obama’s statement that racism is alive and well in our country. Some examples in Lawrence were mentioned by others. Some have been stopped by police, evidently for “driving while black,” others are mistaken for the “hired help” rather than the professions they occupy, others are followed when they enter certain stores.

I remembered the events of July 1970, when I attended services at St. Luke AME for Rick “Tiger” Dowdell, the 19-year-old black youth in East Lawrence who was shot and killed by a Lawrence policeman. Some of those attending the service last Sunday must have been there, too. This was many years before the popular “black lives matter”.

Lawrence police officers — and others — would benefit from the discussions at our Lawrence branch of the NAACP, with meetings on the second Thursday of each month from 6 p.m. to 7:15 p.m. at the Lawrence Public Library. Lawrence NAACP President Ursula Minor has rejuvenated the meetings and welcomes everyone. See also Facebook, “Lawrence Kansas Branch NAACP” or Google “NAACP, Lawrence, Kansas.”

The next meeting is July 9. Mark your calendar.