Southern Baptists talk racial unity with black Baptist head

FILE -- In this Sept. 2014 file photo, Rev. Jerry Young, president of the National Baptist Convention, USA, speaks in Jackson, Miss. Young will address the Southern Baptist Convention's annual meeting next week as the result of an invitation from Pastor Ronnie Floyd, president of the Southern Baptist Convention. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis, File) (The Associated Press)

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – When Ferguson, Missouri, exploded two years ago with racial unrest, the newly elected president of the historically white Southern Baptist Convention was moved to action.

Together with an interracial group of Southern Baptist pastors, the Rev. Ronnie Floyd penned an article that declared, "Silence is not the answer and passivity is not our prescription for healing."

That set in motion events that led Floyd to invite the president of the nation's largest historically black denomination to address the Southern Baptists' annual meeting. The Rev. Jerry Young, of the National Baptist Convention, U.S.A., will speak Tuesday morning as part of a "National Conversation on Racial Unity in America."

Floyd says the fact that the discussion takes place in St. Louis, just down the road from Ferguson, is "providential and amazing!"