Graceland Director of Seminary Helps Organize Peaceful Protest in Independence

Graceland University’s Director of the Community of Christ Seminary Zac Harmon-McLaughlin helped to organize a peaceful protest and rally near the Independence, Missouri, campus on Sunday, June 7. Harmon-McLaughlin and about 300 other protestors gathered at the United Nations Peace Plaza outside of the Community of Christ Auditorium in unity with Americans around the country calling for justice and an end to police brutality.

Those who gathered then walked a few blocks east to the lawn of the Truman Courthouse, where they took a knee in silence for 8 minutes, 46 seconds, representing the time Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin held his knee on George Floyd’s neck during his fatal May 25 arrest.

Harmon-McLaughlin welcomed the crowd and then turned the megaphone over to Jenny Jackson and Darron Story of Kansas City.

“We live in such interesting times, and I hear from my white brothers and sisters, ’How do I engage? What can I do?” Story said. “Part of that engagement is starting with your own circle of friends, start those conversations and find some place to plug in.”

(A more complete article, “Protestors Call for Justice” was originally published in The Examiner but has since been taken down.)