The Rev. Lewis Stewart speaks on police reform, encourages next generation

The Rev. Lewis Stewart still remembers how the tear gas smelled when unrest hit his hometown of Newburgh after the Rev. Martin Luther King was assassinated in 1968.

"That was a volatile time period," Stewart said. "Just like the time we're living in now."

It was King who inspired Stewart. His life using the ministry as an engine for civil rights activism followed.

After footage of several Memphis Police officers beating 29-year-old Tyre Nichols was released Friday night, conversations on policing in America returned to the forefront. Nichols died three days after the traffic stop.

"It's about police culture," Stewart said. "It's like law enforcement hasn't learned anything over the last few years."

The conversation comes a few months after community leaders celebrated Stewart's final days as the leader of The United Christian Leadership Ministry of Western New York, known as UCLM.

Formed by ministers in 2013, UCLM is a human rights organization focused on monitoring and repairing the criminal justice system, primarily as it affects people of color. The organization has advocated for the implementation of body-worn police cameras, the formation of a Police Accountability Board, and bail reform.

Stewart's retirement comes after beating cancer twice.

"The work of liberation took my mind off it," Stewart said. "I was focused on what could be done to alleviate the pain of others. The more you focus on others, the more strengthened you become."

"Give people their flowers while they can still smell them," Mayor Malik Evans said in November at a ceremony honoring Stewart.

"When Reverend Stewart calls, that's a call you want to answer," Former Mayor Lovely Warren said later during the event. "I've watched him overcome obstacles. He turns lemons into lemonade."

Community members, public officials, ordained ministers, and police officers attended the First Church of God on that November night.

"I never make it personal," Stewart replied when asked how he's been able to weave in and out of institutions, especially the police, which his work has often criticized.

"We need police in our community," he said. "But we need police to do a better job and respect our human rights."

Stewart has 17 ministers in his family. After studying at SUNY Brockport and Colgate Divinity School, he settled in Rochester to establish a family and career as a chaplain in the New York state Department of Corrections, starting in 1988 at Groveland Correctional Facility.

"They called me Dad," Stewart said, recalling the prison ministry. Many of the men he saw were Black and Brown, searching for a connection to ease their pain. The experience is why he says religious leaders need to see the "whole community as their pulpit."

Stewart believes the approach can encourage younger generations to work with church leaders.

"We have a good group up and coming, and I applaud them for wanting to get involved," Stewart said.

The Rev. Dwight Fowler takes over UCLM for Stewart. The organization released a statement after the death of Tyre Nichols. It read in part:

We deplore the despicable actions of these five police officers, as well as the actions of the first responders who callously ignored Mr. Nichols's need for medical attention. It is our mission at UCLM to do God's work to help bring forth the change that is needed in Rochester, in Memphis, and all across our nation.

Stewart will now transition into working on a novel in retirement but wants the next generation of civil rights advocates to know their fight will be a continual struggle.

"You don't get days off because you're trying to make life better for yourself and the next generation coming behind you."

Contact Robert Bell at: rlbell@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter: @byrobbell & Instagram: @byrobbell. This coverage is only possible with support from our readers.

This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: The Rev. Lewis Stewart speaks on police reform, next generation