OAKLAND — A local delegation of black clergy from Oakland boarded planes Thursday morning bound for Phoenix to join a nationwide protest this weekend against Arizona's crackdown on illegal immigration.

Brian K. Woodson, pastor of the Bay Area Christian Connection; Rev. Phillip Lawson, interfaith program director for the East Bay Housing Organizations and former pastor of Easter Hill United Methodist Church in Richmond; and Gerald Lenoir, director of the Black Alliance for a Just Immigration said it was their moral duty to oppose Arizona's unjust immigration law, SB 1070.

In remarks before leaving for Phoenix, Rev. Lawson said blacks and Latinos must stand together to demand liberty and justice. Pastor Woodson said while the Arizona law targets the Latino community, it is as onerous and discriminatory as the laws regarding blacks in the pre-Civil Rights era.

The Oakland delegation is one of many expected to join community and faith leaders from across the country in a four-day solidarity movement and march on Arizona's capital Saturday to protest the new law.

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