The Rev. Mike McClure leads a large mixed-race congregation at The Rock Church in Birmingham. The controversy has highlighted his role a peacemaker and an advocate for social justice. A few days after the fatal police shooting of 21-year-old Emantic Bradford Jr., McClure met with Hoover church and city leaders. Most of them were white. He told them about his reality.
“When they look at me, they see a black pastor,” he says. “The problem that most people don’t understand is that when it comes to African Americans, regardless of what we do, we have to be black first.”
