Pro-Lifers Find Increasingly Receptive Audience in African American Community.(Brief Article)

The concept of proclaiming June as "Abortion Awareness Month in the Black Community" touched a nerve. Within days after a packet of information was sent out, NRLC's Outreach Department began receiving an unprecedented number of responses for bumper stickers, flyers, and other educational material. Numerous press interviews were requested and many churches ordered flyers and bumper stickers in large quantities.

The project was jointly sponsored by the National Black Catholic Apostolate for Life and NRLC's own Black Americans for Life (BAL). "We had no idea that this project would take off like a whirlwind," said Fr. Jim Goode, O.F.M., who heads up the National Black Apostolate for Life based in New York City. "Wherever I speak and mention the project people are so hungry for this information they ask me, `How can I find out more or how can I help spread the word?' We are meeting a very important need within the African American community. Next year this project will have greater impact because we now have an identified group of people who have already committed to the idea of June as Abortion Awareness Month in the Black Community."

NRLC's Black Americans for Life followed up the theme of Abortion Awareness Month by presenting a workshop at its annual convention which focused on how to energize the African American community. Pastor Clenard Childress, a Baptist minister from Montclair, New Jersey, was the principal speaker and focused in on how to establish credibility with the black community. Pastor Childress encouraged pro-life leaders to help the black community in general and the black pastors in particular challenge their "conscience" on the abortion issue. Pastor Childress dramatically used the biblical story of David and Bathsheeba to illustrate his belief that we need ...