1 day ago
5
By Javacia Harris Bowser | The Birmingham Times
It’s a mid-October Saturday morning, and it finally feels like fall in Birmingham. The air is crisp and cool. But the people gathered on this day at Sixth Avenue Baptist Church are filled with a proverbial fire, with a passion to make their community healthier, safer and more just.
On October 17, just a few weeks before the November 3 mid-term elections, the Birmingham Black Nurses Association, Black Women for Positive Change, and the Lawrence Mond Jefferson Jr. Foundation teamed up to host a Stop the Violence & Get Out the Vote Summit at Sixth Avenue Baptist Church. The summit included a brief awareness walk and three panel discussions featuring local community leaders and elected officials. Attendees could also register to vote and get voter information such as important dates and polling locations at the event.
For the summit organizers, the connection between voting and violence reduction is clear.
“We elect officials, officials who make decisions about our lives and our livelihoods, what’s happening in our communities,” Carthenia Jefferson, the summit’s lead organizer, said. “That’s why going out to vote is so important. Whether it’s the midterm elections, presidential elections, if you are a registered voter, go out and vote all the time because these persons that we put in these positions make decisions concerning our lives and our safety.”
Attendees take part in a symbolic walk around the grounds of Sixth Avenue Baptist Church during last week’s Stop the Violence & Get Out the Vote Summit. (Marika N. Johnson, For The Birmingham Times)Jefferson represents all three of the organizations behind the summit. She’s a past president and life member of the Birmingham Black Nurses Association. She’s the Alabama state liaison for the national organization Black Women for Positive Change. She’s also president of the Lawrence Mond Jefferson Jr. Foundation, founded in honor of her son, who died at age 29, to help at-risk youth and foster children.
Though an act of violence did not cause Jefferson’s son’s death, she knows the pain of losing a child and works to prevent other parents from experiencing this heartache. That work includes getting local residents to the ballot box.
“These midterm elections are sometimes more important than the presidential elections because we’re electing U.S. House of Representatives, we’re electing senators, and here in the state of Alabama, we’re also electing our governor,” Jefferson said. “We are focused on getting our people registered to vote and not just registered but getting our people out to vote.”
‘We need peace’
For nearly a decade, the Birmingham Black Nurses Association has hosted a Stop the Violence summit each October to address gun violence and domestic violence and to tackle other tough topics such as bullying, human trafficking and suicide prevention. In election years, the event also doubles as a Get Out the Vote summit. Community leaders, elected officials and candidates are invited to attend this non-partisan event. Nurses are on site to discuss mental health and more. Lawyers are available to register eligible non-voters and share voter education awareness information.
The morning kicked off with a warm-up and a walk. Angela Crenshaw and Jacqueline Lockhart, a local dance instructor and a theater teacher at Ramsay High School, led the warm-up.
Lockhart led attendees in a dance to the hit gospel song “Shackles” by Mary Mary. Lockhart said she wanted to be part of the summit to support Jefferson and a cause she believes in.
“I’m very interested in making sure I can do what I can to be a part of encouraging people to get out and vote because this election is so important,” she said. “We need to make sure our voices are heard through our votes.”
Crenshaw taught participants a dance for “Jerusalema,” a 2020 song by Master KG and South African gospel vocalist Nomcebo Zikode.
“The words mean, ‘Lord guide us, protect us, be over us, give us peace,” Crenshaw explained. She hoped the song would set the tone for the day. “To stop the violence, we need love. We need to be guided. We need to be guarded. We need to be protected. We need unity. And when we come to vote, we need peace.”
After the warm-up, attendees took part in a symbolic walk around the grounds of Sixth Avenue Baptist Church. Dozens of people with signs reading calls to action like “Vote Today” marched across the church’s campus and lifted their voices for chants like “Power to the people,” “Time to take a stand,” and “My vote is my voice.”
Nurses are on site to discuss mental health and more. (Marika N. Johnson, For The Birmingham Times)Violence and public health
The Birmingham Black Nurses Association and the National Black Nurses Association see violence as a public health issue.
“If we have gun violence, then that affects our trauma areas, our hospitals in the area. It affects our community,” said Marcia Lowe, who currently serves as vice president of the National Black Nurses Association. “And if we have domestic violence, that affects the family. So, violence is not just affecting one person; it affects a network of people.”
Martha Dawson, immediate past president of the National Black Nurses Association, noted that violence can also impact mental health.
“We have to treat the whole person,” she said. “We want to make sure everyone has a healthy environment and that healthy environment starts at a young age, teaching children and others how to solve their differences by collaborating, talking about the problem, and preventing it from resulting in violence.
Martha Dawson, left, and Marcia Lowe of the National Black Nurses Association. (Marika N. Johnson, For The Birmingham Times)‘These folks are our future’
The first panel of this year’s summit featured Jefferson County District Attorney Danny Carr, Jefferson County Sheriff Mark Pettway, Melvin Love, principal of Oxmoor Valley Elementary, Jefferson County Criminal Court Presiding Judge Michael Streety, and Stephanie Hunter, district/circuit court judge for family court in Bessemer, Alabama.
“Your safety is my top priority,” Sheriff Pettway told the crowd.
Judge Streety lamented that he’s seeing an alarming increase in young people in his courtroom.
“These crimes are impacting younger and younger people,” Streety said. “We have to center our awareness on how it is definitively impacting our culture in a way that is starting younger. I know this is a cliché, but these folks are our future, and we have to pay attention.”
Judge Hunter also spoke to the importance of getting to the root cause of violence and working with youth.
“I think that the trauma that some of our youth face is a great factor that leads to this culture of violence,” she said. “So mentorship, I believe, is a huge thing that can help our young people.”
Hunter also highlighted efforts like the RESTORE (Reduce, Educate, Support, Train, Organize, Realize, Empower) Program — a partnership between the City of Birmingham, Jefferson County Family Court, Jefferson County Family Resource Center (JCFRC) and Jefferson County Juvenile Detention Center created to address systemic issues that affect the lives and realities of the families involved with Family Court.
Principal Love spoke to efforts by Birmingham City Schools such as programs teaching conflict resolution and the recently unveiled Birmingham Legacy Initiative, which seeks to address systems and practices within BCS that could contribute to significant disparities in experiences and academic outcomes of Black boys, including recent data that officials say show Black males are involved in 95% of the district’s behavior infractions.
Love also encouraged attendees to bring young people to events like the summit and other community gatherings.
“Student voice is very important,” Love said. “They feel as though they’re not being heard.”
District Attorney Carr echoed the importance of building meaningful relationships with young people.
“People don’t care what you know until they know that you care,” he said.
Streety stressed that even after young people have committed acts that land them in the criminal justice system, they must know there’s still hope.
“What we have to do is keep our arms open because there always has to be a path to redemption,” he said. “We can never communicate to our young folks that we have given up on them.”
Second Chances
Streety applauded District Attorney Carr for the work he’s done to give young people second chances. The Jefferson County District Attorney’s Office, in collaboration with several local nonprofit organizations, businesses and government agencies, holds regular Second Chance Hiring Fairs specifically for formerly incarcerated and justice-involved individuals. Reset Jefferson County is a program that provides alternative accountability measures and restorative justice opportunities for young, low-level, non-violent offenders in the county.
“The way you fight crime also is you change the trajectory of people’s lives, and when you do that, they also become your credible messengers in the community,” Carr said.
To bring about real change, he added, people who have turned their lives around must be part of the fight, along with other local leaders, residents, and organizations.
Carr stressed that the District Attorney’s Office could not do what it does without the help of the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Department, area judges, and community organizations.
“The reality is that no one person or no one group can fight crime or stop crime,” he said. “It takes all of us.”
One win that Carr highlighted was that as of mid-September, Jefferson County has recorded only two domestic violence homicides this year. Birmingham has recorded none. Carr points not only to his office but also the Birmingham Police Department, Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office, Birmingham Office of the City Attorney, U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Alabama and victim-service organizations such as One Place Birmingham for making these cases a public-safety priority.
Carr acknowledged, however, there is still work to be done.
“Domestic violence is still rampant in the community,” he said. “As the young people say, ‘Don’t get it twisted.’”
Area leaders held panel discussions during the Stop the Violence & Get Out the Vote Summit at Sixth Avenue Baptist Church. (Marika N. Johnson, For The Birmingham Times)Community Policing
The second panel of the day welcomed Birmingham City Councilor Crystal Smitherman, Center Point Mayor Bobby Scott, Pleasant Grove Mayor Yolanda Lawson, and Tarrant Mayor Tracie Threadford.
Regarding public safety, all panelists spoke to the importance of local law enforcement getting to know the residents of the neighborhoods they serve.
“We look at having officers in the community,” Threadford said. “Don’t just ride and patrol. Get out and meet the people. Know who lives on this block. Know that maybe Ms. Davis is elderly and she can’t get out. Know that her grandson may need a mentor or he may need a little help with mental health issues. Community policing is what I call it.”
Smitherman highlighted efforts such as the Police Athletic and Activity Team (PAT) program in Birmingham, through which local officers coach youth sports teams, providing mentorship along the way. Programs like this can have a profoundly positive impact on interactions between young people and law enforcement.
“Now instead of ‘Oh, it’s just a cop,’ it’s ‘Oh, this is coach,” she said, adding that these programs also help officers get to know residents.
‘Politics involves everything’
Councilor Smitherman also stressed that the success of programs spearheaded by District Attorney Carr demonstrates the importance of voting.
“It matters who your DA is,” she said. “Vote for people who care.”
Smitherman said residents must say to themselves, “My everyday life is getting harder. Who are the candidates that are helping to make my life just a little bit easier in this economy?”
Smitherman noted that she and the other panelists were perhaps “preaching to the choir,” implying that anyone who spent their Saturday morning at a Get Out the Vote summit already shared her view that the ballot box matters. So she gave attendees an additional charge.
“Bring somebody with you to the polls,” she said, and she encouraged people to talk politics around the dinner table.
“Politics involves everything,” Smitherman said. “As soon as you walk out your house, politics! That bumpy road you’re dealing with, your grocery prices, your gas prices, your kids not having the resources that they need…People are like, ‘I don’t do politics.’ If you don’t do politics, politics will do you.”
Maurice Mercer, the Democratic nominee for U.S. Congressional District 6, chats with Dana “Lady Woo” Woodruff of V94.9, who was one of the panel moderators. (Marika N. Johnson, For The Birmingham Times)‘We need a win’
For the final panel of the morning, any candidates in the audience were invited to come forward and share why they were running for office.
Maurice Mercer, the Democratic nominee for U.S. Congressional District 6, said he chose to run because he felt Congressman Gary Palmer, the incumbent, isn’t doing enough to address issues such as gas prices, health care, and overall affordability. Mercer previously served on the Pelham City Council and was the first African American council president.
“I’ve seen what it takes there, and the participation that is needed to move the needle for people that look like us,” he told the crowd.
Keith Williams, who is running for Alabama House District 55, shared that he entered the race as an Independent candidate to highlight important issues.
“So I want to step outside of the political lens and really talk about the issues that people have found common ground on,” he said. “What are those issues? High gas prices, high grocery prices, high electric bills. These are things that people all across the board — whether you’re Democrat, Republican, or Independent — these are the issues that people are talking about.”
State Senator Rodger Smitherman, who’s up for reelection, discussed the importance of electing officials who will do what they must to take care of Alabamians, including working with people of different political parties.
“Webster says the definition of politics is the art of compromise, and that’s what you’ve got to be the master of when you’re in a situation like we are now, where we’re not majority,” he said.
Everett Wess, who’s running for U.S. Senate, couldn’t attend the summit but sent Kweston Hill in his stead.
“Attorney Wess, he’s running basically to inspire people,” Hill told the audience. “I think right now we’re in a time where people need hope. Black people need to feel like they are winning because right now we are just being attacked. We are being trampled over. We need a win.”
Hill shared that he first voted in Alabama for Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin.
“Voting for Mayor Woodfin and him winning inspired me to keep going,” he said.
Hill, 24, said young people should know they won’t always win, but that lifting their voices through voting is imperative to keep pushing progress. Hill also honored foot soldiers and civil rights leaders who fought for voting rights.
“There are people who can attest to how things were before we had people in power, in politics, that supported us,” he said. “Attorney Wess is running to inspire people again to show people that we will not go back.”
