WS Chronicle

WILMINGTON — A Wilmington pastor has expressed concern about security at her church in the aftermath of receiving a

Rev. Dierdre Parker is pastor of Speaks Temple AME Zion Church in Wilmington, N.C.

that referred to impoverished African-American communities as “Nigger town…”

Rev. Dierdre Parker, pastor of Speaks Temple A.M.E. Zion Church at 1120 Dawson Street in Wilmington, posted half of the crude, and vile letter that was mailed to her church on her Facebook page Sunday.

“There is a part of me that wonders if I should get security at the church,” Pastor Parker posted. “Will I need to keep my eyes on the door while I’m preaching? But who would walk into a church and hurt someone, right?”

“That’s what we all thought until 9 people were murdered in Charleston. So what do we do now? All I know is that I will continue to trust God, and I will continue to do what I’ve been called to do. Nobody said it would be easy.”

The letter is addressed to “MINISTER, Head Pastor” with Speaks Temple AMEZ’s address, and was postmarked “Charlotte, NC 282” on “14FEB 2018 PM 4 L.” It reads:

Go to any city in the United States of America, any city. Go to the area of the city where you see drug dealers standing on the street corner, whores walking the street, metal bars or metal grating over the shop windows, run down houses with dirt yards, seedy buildings with windows shattered or broken out, creepy people (lazy bums) sitting on porches (porch monkeys), beat up cars and trucks, fat ass women, big lipped ape men, blue gummed people wandering around, a stench in the air, illegitimate kids everywhere, etc…

Then the letter rhetorically asks in bold letters, “WHERE ARE YOU? Answer: Nigger town, of course.”

That was the first, and only part of the racist letter that Parker made public Sunday.

Monday evening, during an exclusive interview, Pastor Parker revealed that she didn’t post the second half of the letter because it was even worse:

Niggers do not give a s—t about anything.

            They’re lazy. They stink. They’re uneducated. They riot. They loot. They will steal you blind. They will not work for a living. They are the parasites of the land.     

            Niggers suck off the white man. Niggers have always sucked off the white man.

            Niggers do nothing to contribute to the society in which we live.

Nothing … nothing at all.

            How do you starve a nigger? Hide his food stamps under a pair of work boots.

The letter is not signed, and there was no return address.

The Wilmington Police Department did interview Pastor Parker about the letter Monday evening, and took it with them. They are expected to increase patrols in the area of Speaks Temple, but explained that’s the best they can do without knowing who sent it.

The state Attorney General’s Office also contacted Pastor Parker about the letter.

Deborah Dicks Maxwell, president of the New Hanover County NAACP, was outraged.

“This is unacceptable at anytime, but especially in 2018,” Ms. Maxwell said in a statement. “We sincerely hope this is the only correspondence that was sent, but it was one too many.”

Many on social media – black and white – have also expressed shock and outrage at the letter, wondering if other black churches across the state will get similar missives in the mail.

Pastor Parker has communicated with other clergy in Wilmington, including her pastor, Rev. Dr. Cliff Barnett of Warner Temple AME Zion Church, to whom she also gave a copy of the letter.

“I think more churches, or black businesses might get it ,” Pastor Parker said. “I just think they started with us.”