Pastor DeForest Soaries Revisits Don Imus-Rutgers Women's Basketball Scandal Amidst Racial Injustice Conversations
SOMERSET, N.J. (CBSNewYork) -- Pastor DeForest Soaries leads the First Baptist Church of Lincoln Gardens.
He was also New Jersey's first black secretary of state and you may remember him as the man who mediated the meeting in 2007 between the Rutgers University Women's Basketball team and the late radio personality Don Imus, after he made disparaging remarks about the team.
"The first thing that happened after Mr. Imus' remarks was that I called him," said Pastor Soaries in an interview with CBS2's Kristine Johnson. "What I wanted him to understand was that these young women were living lives that would be impacted perhaps forever."
Eight days after the controversy began, Pastor Soaries had the team and Imus in a room at the governor's mansion in Princeton.
"And the ground rules were basically, 'Mr. Imus, first, listen' and he listened for two hours," said Soaries. "Our goal going into that meeting was resolution. Our goal was not simply publicity or to inflame the matter, but the goal was resolution."
Pastor Soaries believes the same action and intent can resolve the present swell of anger and protest after the death of George Floyd. But he says to not look for figures like Martin Luther King Jr. and instead look right in front of you.
"Dr. King did work, but the fact is local organizations, pastors and leadership that never made it to the stage of Dr. King had as much to do with the change as Martin Luther King himself," said Soaries.
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Pastor Soaries is not only someone who preaches messages. He also got involved in the community in the past after an unarmed black man was shot by police and he defused an act of revenge.
"Young people decided we are not going to march, we are going to kill a cop, period, and we're going to do it over the weekend," said Soaries. "I decided that Saturday night to ride in a police car. We put the word out in the neighborhood that the pastor is riding with the police, so if you shoot up a car, you may kill him. But in that night, for the first time in my life I understood the fear of the police."
"I think when we enter each other's world and see each other's realities, we have the basis for building relationships. If in America we can get rid of slavery, segregation, lynching and other kind of brutal exposures for black people, then we can solve the problems that have yet to be solved."
