After receiving anger over images of him wearing blackface to emulate Ray Charles, an Oklahoma preacher insists he did nothing wrong. Pastor Sherman Jaquess, who refused to apologize, also said he is not racist because he has many friends of all races, adding that he would never intentionally do something to hurt them, according to KTUL.
Ray Charles was not the only person Jaquess impersonated, as images posted on his Facebook page and the Matoaka Baptist Church showed him dressed as a Native American.
Jaquess stated that he has been the pastor of the Ochelata-based church for over ten years. In February 2017, he allegedly donned blackface to mimic Ray Charles.
“I love Ray Charles,” Jaquess claimed. “I love his music. There wasn’t anything racial about it. I was trying to portray Ray Charles. That’s hard to do as a white man, so I sang the song like Ray Charles, I acted like Ray Charles. I tried to look like Ray Charles.”
When he was asked if he felt what he did was right, Jaquess told the news outlet that he did not “feel like anything I did was derogatory racially at all.”
Marq Lewis, a community organizer, took to Facebook to share the photos of Jaquess donning blackface. The photos in question have since gone viral, per KTUL. “I can’t believe this is happening again and again in Oklahoma,” Lewis said, adding that Jaquess “knows better.”