FREEDOM SUNDAY (Click here to download the Freedom Sunday Toolkit)
On September 21, 2014, faith leaders from across the country will launch a national voter education and participation campaign called FREEDOM SUNDAY. This will be a coordinated effort between the Faith Groups, Religious denominations and Congressional Black Caucus in an attempt to encourage the African American community to vote in the 2014 mid-term elections. Traditionally Black voters are much less apt to vote than White voters during mid-term elections. The average share of the Black vote with President Obama on the ballot is 30.1 percent. However, in 2006 and in 2010 the average share of the Black vote was only 25.3 percent. Black voters will play a huge role in determining the outcome in gubernatorial, state assemblies, and local government, but also who controls the Senate in 2014. Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, and North Carolina are widely considered to be the most pivotal when it comes to maintaining progressive leadership that will continue to support legislation that addresses the critical needs of our communities,
If those in Congress who seek to turn back the clock on the social safety gain control of the upper chamber in Congress, many of the domestic programs that support the African American community will be at risk. These programs include:
1. The Affordable Care Act
2. Head Start Program
3. Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (formerly known as food stamps)
4. Medicare
5. Medicaid
6. Social Security
7. Judicial Nominations
8. Voting Rights
9. Supplemental Security Income (SSI)
10. Pell Grants
11. Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF)
12. Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP)
13. Women Infants and Children Program (WIC)
14. Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC)
15. Child Care Tax Credit
Some in congress have made it abundantly clear that many of the domestic programs that support the African American community will either be significantly cut or eliminated. The loss of these programs will have a devastating effect on poor and middle income African Americans. The stakes could not be higher; every African American voter who chooses to stay home is a vote for those who would deny our community fundamental rights and services. To not vote is to not count. The African American vote will be the key to securing many of the domestic priorities that our community holds dear.
FREEDOM SUNDAYS MOVEMENT
On Freedom Sunday, September 21, 2014, the Black Church will partner with members of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) across the country to participate in services that will emphasize the importance of voter education, registration, and participation by Black Americans in the 2014 mid-term elections. Faith Leaders will again proclaim, explain and educate their members to claim their legacy of advocacy and activism in the election process. Our hope is that congregants will be energized with a clear understanding of what’s at stake in this election by sharing the ramifications on the African American community. CBC and key Faith leaders have collaborated to provide in this Toolkit, talking points as well as sample sermon in an effort to coordinate one message, “every vote counts”. The African American community cannot afford to sit on the sidelines while others determine their fate. Faith leaders, with the support of the CBC, will issue a Call to Action for the faith community on Freedom Sunday on September 21st, to continue voter education, registration, and mobilization efforts each Sunday leading up to “turning out’ our communities through the Tuesday, November 4th election.
History of Freedom Summer 1964
“Freedom Summer” was a movement in the Deep South to register Black citizens to vote during the summer of 1964. Thousands of civil rights activists, many of them white college students from the North, descended on Mississippi and other Southern states to try to end the long-time political disenfranchisement of African Americans in the region.