A mass of about 50 people marched down Chicot Road on Sunday flanked by the unmistakable white Stetson hats worn by Pulaski County sheriff's deputies.
They held signs and chanted religious phrases. Some wore "Black Lives Matter" shirts.
It was not a protest. Law enforcement officers and the almost entirely black crowd marched together.
"We need to send a message more powerful than a protest," the Rev. Robert Robinson of Temple of Restoration Church of God in Christ said.
Robinson led a "community prayer walk" from the church to Chicot Elementary. Three Pulaski County deputies and three Little Rock firefighters joined the walk, which concluded with a prayer for the elementary school children.
Prayer and fellowship -- not a protest -- would foster a positive relationship between the community and law enforcement, Robinson said.
Jeanette Carrigan organized Sunday's event in response to the recent shootings that targeted police in Dallas and Baton Rouge. She enlisted the help of the Rev. Benny Johnson, founder and president of Arkansas Stop the Violence.
They invited members of the Little Rock Police Department and the Pulaski County sheriff's office to attend. They cooked hamburgers and provided inflatables for the children.
"The community needs the police, and the police need the community," Johnson said. He has been critical of city leaders' response to violence in the area surrounding Sunday's march, calling for a more proactive approach.
Little Rock has dodged the civil unrest that has plagued other cities in the past few years over the use of deadly force by law enforcement against blacks. It has been about two years since a Little Rock police officer shot and killed someone.
"We have good police here," Johnson said. "But I'll still be the first to say some shouldn't don the badge."
Jasmine Brown brought her 8-year-old son to the march, hoping to expose him to positive interactions with police. She held his hand as they marched, eyeing the ominous cloud forming overhead, but her son couldn't take his eye off a deputy's "cool" white hat.
"I want him to know that most police are great people," she said. "Not how they're made out to be on TV a lot."
Metro on 07/25/2016