Black faith leaders plan to meet with Boston's mayor and representatives of the local FBI to discuss white nationalist groups that have targeting the city.
Black clergy leaders from the area will meet with Mayor Michelle Wu and the FBI reps at 1 p.m. Thursday at the Twelfth Baptist Church in Boston's Roxbury neighborhood.
"This meeting is being called in light of the white supremacist organizations that have targeted Boston and the concern it presents to our institutions and the entire community," Senior Pastor at the Twelfth Baptist Church Rev. Willie Bodrick II said in a news release. "The goal of this meeting is for Black faith leaders to convene and begin the groundwork for community safety, information sharing and planning in these times. Most importantly, we will pray for the City of Boston, our leadership, and communal safety as we proactively work together to protect our communities and institutions."
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Last month, Boston community and faith leaders demanded action after a demonstration by dozens of apparent white supremacists who marched through the city's streets and an alleged attack on a Black man.
More recently, a New England-based neo-Nazi group held a brief rally on a Saturday afternoon at the Soldiers Monument in Boston's Jamaica Plain neighborhood.
"It is clear that Boston is a way point in the crusade of hate launched five years ago in Charlottesville," Suffolk District Attorney Kevin Hayden said in a written statement following that incident. "The presence of white supremacists at a Jamaica Plain book reading today, like their downtown march earlier this month, is at once a disgrace and a warning."
Boston police investigated an incident last month where vandals spray painted threats at an LGBTQ-friendly housing project.
