The Oldest Black Church In Alabama Is Driving Voters To The Polls
With Election Day quickly approaching, the congregation of St. Bartley’s, the oldest Black Church in Alabama, has decided to take matters into their own hands and offer rides to voters who request access to polling sites to increase turnout in this year’s historic election.
Members of the congregation, including Huntsville NAACP President, Jerry Burnet, have been driving people to the polls in their own vehicles. They plan to continue this practice until the end of Election Day on Nov. 3.
“We have only been voting for less than 60 years,” Burnet said. “My momma lived and died and never got the right to vote. Only a few Black people were able to cast their votes during her time.”
What is now called St. Bartley Primitive Baptist Church in Huntsville, Ala. has been a home for Black Christians for 200 years and is this year in the midst of celebrating its bicentennial history. On Nov. 1, the church hosted a drive-in worship experience and party in a borrowed parking lot, complete with blue and gold balloons in the shape of “200.” Elder William Harris founded the Old School Huntsville African Baptist Church in 1820, 43 years before Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation in 1863.
“I encourage voting out of respect and regard for our ancestors because so many were part of getting that voting rights act passed,” Senior Pastor Jaymes Mooney said. “All of those that came before us sacrificed so we could vote.”
During the Civil War, the original church building was burnt down by Union Soldiers. When Ulysses S. Grant heard the news, he provided money for the church to be rebuilt. The church opened once again in 1872 and survived until 1964 when a wave of Urban Renewal took place. Since the church’s beginning, there have only been nine pastors.
The church lives on through the sermons of Mooney, a Nashville native with a passion for sharing the scriptures to the “most disadvantaged neighborhood in Huntsville,” according to the pastor.
Along with St. Bartley, members like Burnet have been taking every opportunity to publicize the importance of voting in this election. He believes the Trump administration has failed Americans during the COVID-19 pandemic and reckoning on race relations.
“Every chance I get I make it known that it is very important that we go to the polls on election day, if not before,” Burnet said. “It’s important that everyone go to the polls and hopefully, they’ll make the right decision when they get there.”
Other members within the St. Bartley community, like men’s Sunday school teacher and deacon William Pendleton, are also supporting Biden for president.
“I still believe as I always have that love is a more excellent way,” Pendleton said, justifying his choice to vote for Biden. “I see it as a daily decision; you can choose war or you can choose peace; you can choose love or you can choose hate. We can choose to be unified, more inclusive, or we can continue to push the idea that separation is the way to go.”
The latest polling shows that about 80% of white evangelicals support Trump, about the same that supported him in 2016 and a key part of his base. Trump’s support from white Catholics and white Protestants who aren’t evangelical has slipped. And while Latino evangelicals narrowly favor Trump, 67% of hispanic Catholics and 90% of Black Protestants support Biden, according to recent Pew data.
“I don’t endorse any particular candidate but I do think that Black people for the most part and Black church people usually vote for the platforms that are in their best interest,” said Mooney. “Many Black Christians see the values of a Democratic party in a different way—beyond abortion and same-sex marriage—they see the platform more in alignment with how they see scripture.”
Pastor Jaymes Mooney preached from a parking lot Nov. 1 during St. Bartley’s bicentennial worship celebration. Photo taken from YouTube.
St. Bartley’s efforts to get people to the polls did not come coincidentally. Burnet believes that the current government is engaging in voter suppression, “basically denying the people an opportunity [to vote]. It should be easier for people to cast their ballot, not harder.” In his mother’s time, the state engaged in poll taxing, literacy tests and widespread voting procedure disinformation to curb the African American vote.
While Alabama was at the center of the voting rights movement of the 1960s, it’s also remained at the center of voter suppression controversies for closing polls in historically Black neighborhoods, purging voter registration records and implementing strict voter ID laws.
Critics of the (often Democrats’) claims of voter suppression say that this year’s widespread access of early voting and absentee ballots for anyone who prefers to stay home or limit contact during the pandemic is more likely to result in voter fraud.
Peggy Etheridge moved from Washington, D.C. a few years ago after retiring from her job in the federal government as the Recruitment Program Manager at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Though she was originally from Alabama, she didn’t grow up in Huntsville. When searching for a church, she was immediately drawn to St. Bartley, and more specifically, Pastor Mooney.
“You can tell that he has a heart for the Lord and for God’s people,” Etheridge said.
Etheridge is outspoken about her political beliefs, explaining that she feels that voting for Trump is not in her best interest—or anyone’s best interest.
“I don’t understand how you can vote for him and be a Christian,” Etheridge said. “He has claimed that he has done so much for Black people, but all he’s done for Black people is disparage them. He is certainly not a Christian. I could never ever vote for anyone like him… I’ve been a Christian for well over 50 years and my faith says that you treat others the way that you want to be treated. My Bible tells me not to bear false witness, and he does that every time he opens his mouth.”
Mattie Townson is an editorial intern for Religion Unplugged and a journalism student at The King's College in New York City. She is the Campus Editor for her school newspaper, The Empire State Tribune.