White Oklahoma pastor refuses to apologize for resurfaced Blackface photos

Angel Saunders
·2 min read
pastor
pastor

A white Oklahoma pastor is in hot water after making a couple of questionable decisions, but he doesn’t seem to have any regrets. An old photo of Sherman Jaquess in Blackface has surfaced online, and the church member said he isn’t apologizing for his past.

One picture in question was taken in February 2017; however, the image recently made its way to social media. Just before the weekend, photos of Jaquess in Blackface and dressed as a Native American went viral, according to Tulsa news station ABC 8. Jaquess, who has been with the Matoaka Baptist Church for over a decade, claimed he painted his body the darkest shade possible and wore an afro, so he could look like the late musician Ray Charles.

“I love Ray Charles. I love his music. There wasn’t anything racial about it. I was trying to portray Ray Charles. That’s hard to do as a white man, so I sang the song like Ray Charles, I acted like Ray Charles. I tried to look like Ray Charles,” the Oklahoma pastor said in defense of the resurfaced images. On Friday (April 21), the ABC 8 asked Jaquess if he felt his actions were appropriate. “I don’t feel like anything I did was derogatory racially at all,” he responded. Community organizer Marq Lewis also spoke with the outlet, condemning the pictures. “He knows better. He knows better,” he declared.

When discussing the images portraying a Native American, Jaquess had an explanation for that as well. “That picture was 10 or 11 years ago at a Falls Creek Baptist Church youth camp. Multiple years, we have different themes, and that theme was cowboys and Indians,” the pastor began. “I don’t apologize for it. This church is multiracial, has all different kinds of racial people in it,” the Oklahoma resident added.

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