15th annual Walk for Peace a mixture of joy and sorrow, hope and despair

Sep. 24—The wall of faces set up in front of the Wendale Davis Foundation on Chester Avenue was papered with the snapshots and portraits of hundreds who have been lost to senseless violence in Bakersfield and surrounding communities over the years.

"My oldest brother is on this wall," said Latonya Perry.

And the loss still leaves a hole in her life.

But if the cycle of violence is going to be broken, she said, we can't hold onto the anger inside of us.

Instead, she said, "We need to rejoice in sorrow."

Some 200 people joined together Saturday morning to participate in the 15th annual Walk for Peace & Family Health Resource Fair organized by the foundation. Each year organizers hope to call attention to the violent murders that have snuffed out the flame of life that once burned inside each and every one of those who are pictured on the wall.

Inside the crowd of marchers as it moved eastward on Eighth Street was Wesley Davis Jr., whose 16-year-old son was shot to death on by an unknown assailant on April 23, 2006. Davis' son would become the namesake of the Wendale Davis Foundation, a nonprofit founded by his father that focuses on ending the sort of violence that resulted in Wendale's death.

The foundation provides mentoring services to young people and adults. More importantly, it works to change the pattern of gang violence and other more random killings that have shattered families, neighborhoods and communities over and again.

As the marchers turned south on P Street — police escorts protecting the marchers from traffic — there were riders on motorcycles and moms pushing strollers. There were pastors and preachers. There were grandmothers who had lost grandchildren and fathers who had lost sons.

And as the warming sun rose high overhead, they walked on the asphalt, hoping that somehow, someday, the cycle of violence will break and that peace will reign in their city.

"We lost my granddaughter to gun violence almost two years ago," said Lynn Hughes, who was holding a portrait of Marya Neufeld, only 16 when she was found shot to death in an orchard outside of Arvin.

"I hope that this brings awareness to the violence going on," she said. "That's why we're marching today, in memory of Marya."

But she has a second motivation for joining the march with other members of her family. She is seeking justice.

"Somebody somewhere knows something," she said. And it's time for that person to come forward.

As the march turned west on Fourth Street, some came out of the crowd to greet Lynnette Pollard, a resident of St. John Manor who had come out to the sidewalk in her motorized wheelchair to see the parade of marchers.

More onlookers watched from the steps of Compassion Christian Center on Fourth Street.

Wesley Davis III, the son of the foundation's founder and the brother of Wendale, said the march represents solidarity with those who have lost loved ones as a result of the conflict and violence.

"It says, 'We love you, we support you, we feel this pain with you,'" the younger Davis said.

The march, he said, is a statement made once a year that they are not forgotten. But it's more than that.

As a man who lost his brother, Wendale, 16 years ago to gun violence, learning of new shootings, hearing of more blood spilled, "is like a wound that gets reopened every time," he said.

But he believes the work the foundation does to meet with not only victims' families but even potential perpetrators, can sometimes mean the next shooting does not happen, the next turn in the cycle of violence is pulled up short.

But shootings that don't happen cannot be measured, he said.

Back at the foundation's headquarters, lunch was being prepared on a hot grill on wheels. Music poured from a DJ's booth, and people came together with hugs and handshakes, stories and memories.

Foundation founder Wesley Davis Jr. said even 16 years after the violent death of his son, Wendale, the pain is still present.

"However, there are people here who are two months, three months, eight months, nine months out from the deaths of loved ones," he said. "And of course, because I've walked in their shoes ... I know exactly what they're feeling.

"It's about coming together with people," he said, "who understand the struggle."

And it's a struggle that sometimes seems never-ending.

Reporter Steven Mayer can be reached at 661-395-7353. Follow him on Facebook and on Twitter: @semayerTBC.