Progressive National Baptist Convention plans voter drive in Atlanta, Georgia, aiming to add 500,000 to voter rolls

On Tuesday, Jan. 18, Rev. Willie D. Francois III, co-chair of the social justice arm of the Progressive National Baptist Convention (PNBC), spoke at a news conference in Atlanta that was livestreamed on the denomination’s social media. He described the convention’s approach as “a ministry of erosion.” “What does that mean? We keep showing up so that we wear evil down,” he said. “The denial of voting rights is evil. The protection of Senate rules over the protection of the public is evil.”

The news conference took place at the historically Black denomination’s midwinter board meeting. It coincided with a debate on Capitol Hill over voting rights bills that the PNBC supports along with a number of other faith organizations. The bills were not expected to pass.

Francois said the PNBC would work with Faiths United to Save Democracy, a new coalition that has urged the Senate to change its filibuster rule. He described the filibuster as a stalling technique that requires 60 votes to end and is often used by the minority party to block a bill that would otherwise pass by a simple majority. “The filibuster that was used to block anti-lynching laws cannot be used right now to block voter expansion,” Francois said. He called on the Senate “to reform its filibuster to ensure that we can actually pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Act and we can also pass the Freedom to Vote Act.”

PNBC leaders said they would move ahead with plans regardless of the outcome of the current debate. Those plans include lobbying members of Congress in March and registering voters weekly in congregations and communities, with a goal of increasing voter rolls by 500,000.

Rev. Adolphus Lacey, a Brooklyn pastor and PNBC social justice commissioner, said the efforts would continue despite the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. “COVID is real; COVID is a threat,” he said. “But even more serious than COVID, as real and scary as it is, is to see thousands and thousands of thousands of voters not being able to vote, and it was on our watch. We refuse to stop. We refuse to turn around.” Lacey’s remarks reflect a concern for those who cannot speak for themselves (Proverbs 31:8-9).

Rev. Darryl Gray of St. Louis said the voter registration initiative would be aimed particularly at millennials and members of Gen Z, and would also focus on states with key races expected to have close margins. Gray, a PNBC pastor who served in the Kansas Senate in the 1980s, ran an unsuccessful 2020 campaign for Missouri state representative. “We don’t want to just register a half a million people,” he said. “We want to register a half a million people in United States senatorial campaigns that are going to be consequential.”

PNBC leaders noted that the denomination is the denominational home of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., and that it is meeting in a state at the center of voting rights debates. King co-pastored Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, and his Southern Christian Leadership Conference, which was influential in the civil rights movement, is also based in the city. “We believe it is no coincidence that this convention, born out of the need to fight for justice, is in this state and city at such a time as this when our voting rights are under fierce attack,” said Rev. David R. Peoples, president of the PNBC. “This is a call to action from the Progressive National Baptist Convention. We come to not just pray. We come to not just push. We come to not just preserve. We’ve come to protect the right to vote.”

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