Souls to the Polls moves congregation to vote

Duval County, the consolidated City of Jacksonville, established by local charter, is holding its elections this week for some of the community’s top offices, including sheriff and mayor. But, on the last Sunday before Election Day, Historic City News observed Jacksonville church leaders employing a strategy that worked during the November elections here in St Augustine.

In a report filed by reporter Kumasi Aaron and broadcast on WJXT, she found several churches in Jacksonville that were using today’s service for a different mission.

“We need the right people in office to set the right policies,” Bishop Rudolph McKissick Jr. told the congregation at the Bethel Church during his sermon this morning. “It’s got to be a partnership between the church, the government, and law enforcement.”

In St Augustine, leaders from three churches in largely minority neighborhoods turned out three-hundred concerned citizens who were determined to use the power of their vote to accomplish a change at City Hall. The former long-term mayor, a favorite for re-election, was defeated by a political newcomer who has been working steadily to improve years of inattention to their concerns; including a lack of representation on the city commission and governing boards, no black firefighters, no black police officers, and no black city employees in the top three pay grades.

In Jacksonville, churchgoers got even more inspiration to go out and vote when they were greeted and encouraged by guest speaker, Congressman John Lewis. The fact that the icon of the civil rights movement in Selma cared enough to come to Jacksonville and encourage the church members moved the congregation to be part of the new movement; called Souls to the Polls.

Bishop McKissick told reporters in the interview that he has two young teenage boys and it’s critical to him, as a father, to vote for a mayor, a sheriff, and council people that will lead the community into the next generation. The leaders believe that their vote can play a big part in helping turn around the recent rash of violence in Jacksonville.