Citing the alleged rape of a black woman by members of the men's lacrosse team, the Reverend William Barber preached about the need to speak up and act with "tenacity" during troubled times Tuesday night.
Barber, the state conference president of the North Carolina chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, released a statement hours earlier detailing 10 steps that he thinks should be taken in order to ensure "justice, integrity and healing" in the wake of recent accusations that three members of the men's lacrosse team raped, choked and sodomized an exotic dancer March 13.
"The current events and allegations surrounding the Duke lacrosse team and a twenty-seven-year-old African American student-mother taps into deep emotional and historical themes of our flawed society," Barber said in the statement.
The statement called for a more proactive approach on the part of the University. Barber encouraged the community to denounce any code of silence, show compassion for the alleged victim and push forward, among other things.
"We have been there when women have been victimized and the actions of the perpetrators were dismissed by suggestions that the victim herself deserved what happened to her or by statements like, 'Boys will be boys,'" he said in the statement. "How we proceed will have great impact on our ability to remain a community and meet the demands of justice."
Speaking from the pulpit of the Divinity School's Goodson Chapel, Barber, Divinity '89 and an adjunct professor, said the alleged incident brings to the forefront important issues of violence, racial degradation, alcohol and elitism at the University.
"I want to spend a moment talking to you about trouble at the table," Barber began. "Ain't no need to run from it tonight. We can't come here tonight and act like this is an ordinary night and an ordinary service.... There is a victim."
Barber emphasized the need to ameliorate the struggles various members of the community currently face before "seeking grace" and moving on.
"We're in the midst of a crisis. Not nobody, not even a dog deserves to be gang-raped," Barber said. "We don't want to rush to judgement, but neither do we want to delay justice."
Barber noted that the alleged incident has raised a number of issues that are already forcing the community to strive for change.
"Yes, there's trouble at the table, but every day there's something that gives us hope at the table," Barber said from the pulpit. "This has bridged what hundreds of years hasn't been able to bridge. We're doing something here."
A graduate of North Carolina Central University, Barber said he has seen increased interaction and dialogue among his alma mater, Duke and Durham during past weeks. After the talk, which was held as part of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Lecture Series, participants walked from Goodson Chapel to the Duke Chapel steps-an action that was in keeping with Barber's earlier call for students and faculty at the Divinity School to not "hide behind these stained windows."
"I pray tonight that when we leave here, we won't just leave," Barber said. "Let's go have a prayer, a consecration in front of the Chapel."
The group held hands and gathered in a circle in front of the Chapel. William Turner, associate professor of the practice of homiletics at the Divinity School, led the group in a prayer.
"Forgive us for the divisions we have allowed to exist between us and the community," Turner said. "Forgive us for not challenging attitudes of arrogance and pride. Forgive us, Lord, for our culpability."
Several people stopped to watch the prayer in front of the Chapel. One passerby said she was moved by the gathering.
"I honestly have no idea what happened," she said in reference the the alleged incident on N. Buchanan Boulevard March 13. "One of the things that's very interesting is that these boys were white and they have money. If it weren't for those two things, I think they would be in jail."
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