Aqeela Sherrills is a campaigner against gang violence and the death penalty who lives in Watts, Los Angeles, United States.
In 1992, Sherrills brokered a peace agreement between the Bloods and the Crips (two rival gangs). His son, Terrell Sherrills, was shot to death in 2004 in an apparently random killing. He is executive director and co-founder (with his brother Daude) of the Community Self-Determination Institute. He also co-founded Amer-I-Can with American football player Jim Brown.[1][2][3]
In 2005, Sherrills visited sacred sites around the world, and upon returning to Watts he launched The Reverence Movement. [4][5][6] As a peace movement, The Reverence Movement is:
- a multi-tiered consultant company focused on shifting world wide imagination by instituting a practice of authentic exploration of the wounds in the personal life as a means of accesses the gift of who we are by not defining ourselves as our experiences.[7]
A longtime anti-death penalty activist, Sherrills became the Southern California Outreach Coordinator for California Crime Victims for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (CCV) in 2010. Through his work with CCV, he speaks out against the death penalty alongside other murder victim family members who also oppose the death penalty.[8]
References
- ↑ "Luminary: Aqeela Sherrills". Shift in Action. Archived from the original on 14 February 2009. Retrieved 2 July 2009.
- ↑ "INTERVIEW: AQEELA SHERRILLS". The Urbanite Magazine. Archived from the original on 31 August 2007. Retrieved 2 July 2009.
- ↑ "Death Penalty Focus: Staff". Death Penalty Focus. Archived from the original on 2 February 2012. Retrieved 27 January 2012.
- ↑ "Urban Leadership Staff". Urban Leadership Institute website. Urban Leadership Institute. Retrieved 27 January 2012.
- ↑ "The Reverence Project". TheSanchezM. Archived from the original on 2021-12-13. Retrieved 27 January 2012.
- ↑ "The Reverence Movement, Aqeela Sherrills keynote speech at 2009 Bioneers". Free Speech TV. Archived from the original on 5 February 2012. Retrieved 27 January 2012.
- ↑ "Urban Leadership Staff". Urban Leadership Institute website. Urban Leadership Institute. Retrieved 27 January 2012.
- ↑ "Aqeela Sherrills: One father's message to another". Los Angeles Daily News. Archived from the original on 13 October 2010. Retrieved 26 January 2010.
External links
- AqeelaSherrills.net
- California Crime Victims for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (CCV)
- Aqeela Sherrills discusses the Black/Latino conflict in Los Angeles, by www.StreetGangs.com, April 2008
- Aqeela Sherrills & Calvin Hodges, by The Forgiveness Project
- Aqeela Sherrills featured on Sacred Awakenings Teleseries, the audio of that talk is available at The Lysistrata Project page about nonviolence.
- Community Self-Determination Institute on WiserEarth
- Blog post and video of Aqeela Sherrills by Alexandra
- Euphrates Institute: 2020 Visionary Of The Year profile