Black Clergy Launch Voter Registration Drives After Supreme Court Guts Voting Rights Act
Black church leaders across the country are organizing emergency meetings and voter registration hubs after the Supreme Court's 6-3 ruling weakened the Voting Rights Act. Denominations including COGIC and the CME Church are mobilizing congregations ahead of midterm elections.
On the first Sunday after the Supreme Court hollowed out the Voting Rights Act, the Rev. Richelle Lewis-Castine stood before her congregation in Patterson, Louisiana, with a clear message.
"I encouraged them to early vote," said the pastor of an African Methodist Episcopal Church. "I encouraged them to make sure that they get the information, that they're reading carefully, and to encourage other people to vote because it is so very important at this hour."
The 6-3 ruling, written by Justice Samuel Alito, declared Louisiana's second majority-Black congressional district an unconstitutional gerrymander. The decision immediately prompted Louisiana legislators to meet on May 8 to debate redrawing congressional maps.
African American ministers from across the country gathered for an online "Emergency Black Clergy Zoom Meeting" hosted by Bishop Erika Crawford and the Rev. Barbara Williams-Skinner. Leaders from the Progressive National Baptist Convention and the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church joined to share strategies.
Bishop Talbert Swan II, director of social justice ministry for the Church of God in Christ, outlined steps for his denomination.
"We want every COGIC church to become a voter registration hub, that means setting up registration tables at every service, training volunteers and ensuring that every eligible member is registered, not occasionally, but consistently," Swan said.
Bishop Charley Hames Jr. of the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church called the ruling a "massacre of our rights." His denomination is placing designated voter engagement captains at every local church by the first Sunday in June and reenacting "Souls to the Polls Sundays."
In Memphis, the Rev. J. Lawrence Turner and the Rev. Earle Fisher of Abyssinian Missionary Baptist Church participated in demonstrations against Republican-led efforts to break apart a majority-Black district. Tennessee Republicans voted to eliminate the district, but clergy vowed legal challenges.
"We've been here before, and every time this nation has tried to draw us out of history, we have found a way to draw ourselves back in," Fisher said.
