Black Church Group Leads Voter Drive

More than two dozen of Los Angeles’ most prominent African American ministers, politicians and activists gathered at the city’s oldest black church Thursday to announce an interfaith coalition of about 400 churches statewide to combat what they called an emergency situation in the black community.

Since mid-September, the coalition has registered 17,000 new Southern California voters in what it said is their campaign’s first step, organizers said at First African Methodist Episcopal Church.

“This is not a one-shot deal,” said the Rev. Joe B. Hardwicke, president of the voter registration project, adding that church leaders are negotiating with corporations to open factories in South-Central Los Angeles. “We will fight together, we will stand together, we will grow together and demand our God-given rights,” Hardwicke said. “This is a new day. There will be no more business as usual in this community!”

The coalition hopes to sign up 8,000 more African American voters in the Southland by Sunday, and increase turnout at the polls in November by getting 100,000 registered African American voters to vote by mail.

“If we’re going to turn around the plight of our community, the imprisonment of young men, the poverty, the crime, the only way we’re going to do that is with the ballot box,” Assemblywoman Gwen Moore (D-Los Angeles) said.

The second step is to follow up after the election to make sure that elected representatives are held accountable and bring jobs to the inner city, coalition members said.

Those who vote must follow through, said state Sen. Teresa Hughes (D-Inglewood). “It’s not just passing one bill, it’s not just getting one person elected,” she said. “It’s staying on their case and making sure they are accountable.”

The coalition is part of a statewide voting effort organized by the California Legislative Black Caucus. Registration materials are available at First A.M.E. and other black churches in Carson, Pasadena, South-Central Los Angeles and Compton.

The effort will climax this weekend as Jesse Jackson, Rosey Grier and Washington mayoral candidate Marion Barry come to Los Angeles to sign up voters. From tonight through Sunday, statewide radio broadcasts will encourage African Americans to register and vote. The deadline for registering to vote in the November elections is Tuesday.

“Blacks have been hypnotized before and on Election Day to say, ‘I don’t have to vote,’ only to wake up after the election and say, ‘What happened?’ ” said Barbara Boudreaux, a Los Angeles Unified School District board member.

Moore said education was also desperately needed, noting that people still volunteer to help her campaign for California secretary of state even though she lost the June Democratic primary.

Black leaders said they hope that churches--which Moore called “the salvation of the black community”--can help combat the social problems they say plague their community. To that end, the churches will help organize a statewide conference of black leaders in February.

“We will not give up in spite of the rather overwhelming odds against which we struggle,” said Los Angeles Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas. “The city of Los Angeles cannot be what it ought to be unless the quality of life of the African American community is improved.”