Skiles: Working together more important than causing separation

Joseph Skiles, senior pastor of Solid Rock Family Church, emphasizes a point during his keynote address Saturday at the NAACP's Prayer Breakfast and Founder's Day at Ryan's restaurant in Jefferson City.
Joseph Skiles, senior pastor of Solid Rock Family Church, emphasizes a point during his keynote address Saturday at the NAACP's Prayer Breakfast and Founder's Day at Ryan's restaurant in Jefferson City.

At an event where most guests come dressed up, Jefferson City NAACP President Nimrod Chapel Jr. wore jeans and a Mizzou hoodie Saturday morning, to the annual Prayer Breakfast and Founder's Day program.

"I did that in the name (and memory) of Trayvon Martin," Chapel explained, noting the case of the Florida teen killed last month, as he was walking back to his father's home in an Orlando-area gated community from a nearby convenience store.

"He's been dead a month and the person who shot him" - a neighborhood watch captain - "hasn't even been arrested," Chapel added. "We're not talking about retribution - we're talking about simple justice."

Chapel's comments followed and tied into the Rev. Joseph Skiles' keynote address, which pressed the idea the Biblical story of the "Good Samaritan" has lessons for all people, regardless of their faith or racial heritage.