Good evening. Tonight we have news from Georgia thanks to our colleague Nick Corasaniti reporting on a black religious leaders suffrage project.
In the months leading up to the 2020 elections, Bishop Reginald Jackson undertook a massive balloting operation for the 534 African Methodist Episcopal churches he oversees in Georgia, organizing registration drives, community education programs voters and efforts to coordinate the Sunday vote.
That work seemed to pay off: Strong black voter turnout contributed to victories for Joe Biden, Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff in Georgia.
But now, after Republicans in Georgia passed sweeping legislation last year with a variety of voting restrictions, Jackson and other black religious leaders across the state fear they must do more to help black Georgians exercise their right to vote.
So this week, more than a dozen of these faith leaders are launching Faith Works, a project with an initial budget of $2.6 million that will seek to organize ballot operations in more than 1,000 churches in Georgia.
The venture is a first for black churches in Georgia, leaders say, with a formal fundraising and operations hub that will connect different regions and denominations. Informally, the leaders call themselves “the Faith Avengers”.
The initiative, which will be housed in a 501(c)(4) nonprofit organization founded by church leaders called Transforming Georgia, will offer small grants to churches to help personalize voting operations, launch a campaign social media advertising, coordinate messaging from religious leaders about the vote, and partner with other suffrage rights organizations, which are plentiful across Georgia and have a large national following.
“Faith leaders across the state worked frantically to make sure we got the vote in 2020,” Jackson said. “We must redouble our efforts to overcome the obstacles put in place now for the 2022 elections.”
In Georgia’s primary elections in May, turnout surpassed previous milestones, sparking a new debate about the impact of the election law, which had largely been untested. Among other provisions, the act instituted strict new identification requirements for mail-in ballots, limited drop boxes, and expanded the legislature’s power over elections.
But Jackson and other civil rights leaders still worry that the primary election won’t necessarily be an accurate test of the law and that provisions in the legislation could still make it harder to vote in their communities.
Their new campaign push builds on a long history of civic activism in black churches, particularly in the fight to protect the right to vote and to ensure members exercise that right.
Voting after Sunday church services, often referred to as “souls at the ballot box,” is a tradition that dates back decades in black communities across the country, and church leaders in Florida and Virginia have begun organizing these efforts. more formally in 1998.
Reverend Timothy McDonald, an Atlanta Baptist pastor and one of the nation’s first “Souls to the Polls” organizers, said he sees Georgia’s new election law as a call to arms.
“We’ve been in this business for over 40, almost 50 years, from when I was a full-time associate pastor of Dr. King’s Church, Ebenezer,” he said, referring to the historic church in Atlanta once led by Martin. Luther King Jr., where Warnock now serves as pastor. “We were fighting the same battles.
Much of Faith Works’ initial focus will be on the grant program for churches, which could pay for things like buses for “souls to the polls” efforts, call lists and phones for operations. telephone banking or mailings to members.
Church leaders will also conduct voter education programs, coupled with a social media advertising campaign, to ensure voters know their rights under state law and how to overcome the potential confusion or challenges arising from new legislation.
Faith Works leaders also held town hall meetings with key national suffrage figures, joined by hundreds of pastors from across Georgia. On Thursday, more than 350 people joined a call to discuss voting rights with Kristen Clarke, assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. The leaders also met with Representative James Clyburn of South Carolina, the third House Democrat, and Cedric Richmond, a former senior adviser to Biden.
The goal, leaders say, is to leverage the trust and influence of the black church in key communities, especially in rural areas where first-time and infrequent voting can be a challenge for national groups.
“Let’s be clear: people will trust their pastors,” said Reverend Lee May, a pastor from outside Atlanta. “They trust their churches, and we really want to use that and help get people to vote.”
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