On December 5th, we lost Reverend Richard (Meri Ka Ra) Byrd, a wonderful man and minister whose death is a real loss for the people. Rev. Byrd was the Senior Minister at KRST Unity Center of AfRaKan Spiritual Science, a center in South Central Los Angeles he led with his wife, Erica. It was a center that started off as Christ Unity Center and evolved as Rev. Byrd’s own ideas changed and evolved to take up AfRaKan Spiritual Science.

Rev. Byrd had a lot of love for people—for his congregation, for Black people, for humanity, and for all justice-loving people he met. He conveyed dignity and respect in how he walked through the world and how he treated people. He was incredibly warm with a very generous heart, known for smiling often with a laugh that lit up the room.

Meri Ka Ra wanted a world Black youth could grow up in, and a better future and world for all people. He courageously contributed in many ways to the struggle for that better world. One of the ways he fought for this was as a prominent participant for many years in the October 22nd Coalition to Stop Police Brutality, Repression, and the Criminalization of a Generation. He MC’d many of the rallies, and he was moved by and helped give a platform to speak out to mothers and other family members whose relatives were murdered by the police.

One of the things that stood out about Rev. Byrd was his sincere appreciation of the revolutionary leader Bob Avakian (BA) and his significant contributions to defending and popularizing BA and his work. In 2012, he was part of promoting the publication of the book BAsics, from the talks and writings of Bob Avakian, reading a quote from the book for a radio announcement. And when the seminal talk BA Speaks: REVOLUTION—NOTHING LESS! was released in 2013, Meri Ka Ra spoke out when there were attempts by the police to prevent revolutionaries from spreading the word about the premiere on the streets of South Central:

As a community elder and spiritual leader, my responsibility is the uplifting of the ancient principles of Ma'at, that being truth, justice, order, balance, harmony, propriety and righteousness, as such a form likely to affect our safety and happiness, and that encompasses the highest teaching for humanity and our sharing of the resources of the earth. My hearing of Bob Avakian’s platform affirms a high teaching for all humanity and includes a clear message of operative and restorative justice, focused upon the redress of human rights for America’s Black citizens. Bob Avakian deserves, and has the right, to be heard according to Ma'at, according to the Constitution, according to the Bill of Rights of the United States of America.

There is much to learn from the example of this revolutionary-minded spiritual man about heart, courage, principle, and generosity of spirit. We will miss him dearly.