VALDOSTA—A crowd of all ages and ethnicities converged on Serenity Christian Church Sunday night to get a young person’s perspective on the recent violence in Valdosta and Lowndes County.

Sponsored by the Valdosta Lowndes County Chapter Southern Christian Leadership Conference the forum opened with a short video titled “A War for Your Soul.”

The video is a satire on the history of blacks in America and how their perceptions of their place in society and among each other has changed over the years and not necessarily for the better.

The video showed graphic images of blacks that had been beaten and lynched and inspiring snippets from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and President Barack Obama.

The video left many in the church in tears and some openly sobbing.

Rev. Floyd Rose, President of the SCLC, passed out copies of the video to pastors and heads of youth organizations.

Pastor Leroy Henderson, was the moderator for the second half of the forum which brought a variety of people up on stage to discuss their experiences.

“There is room at the table for everybody,” Henderson said. “The fight is on the northside, southside, eastside and westside, it’s at your jobs, in your neighborhoods and in the schools.”

Minister Bobby Smith was the first to speak. From 1995 to 2004 Smith was a member of the Folk Nation Gang Disciples. He had been locked up 12 times, used cocaine for 10 years and stabbed, he said.

Facing 20 years in prison Smith said his life began to head down a different path.

“I wend down Route 66, the 66 books in the Bible from Genesis to Revelations,” he said. “I met a man named Jesus and he changed my life.”

There are five factors that shape a community, Smith said, parents, teachers, drugs, the system and the church.

The system is tough to break out of once in, he said.

Coming out on parole and probation the state wants one thing — money.

Money is hard to come by when a job is difficult to obtain due to a criminal record, Smith said.