DALLAS—On Monday, May 18, 2026, the Social Justice Ministry of the Friendship West Baptist Church in Dallas hosted an event called, “Ground Zero: Our voting rights, political representation, and democracy are under assault! We will take action.”
The event featured discussion of the Supreme Court’s recent gutting of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act and how to organize for the future in order to get out the vote and to fight for Black political power and liberation.
Friendship West Baptist Church is an historically African American church with a vision is of becoming a “game-changing Christian movement, fighting for justice while creating the beloved community.” Dr. Frederick Douglass Haynes III is the Senior Pastor at Friendship West Baptist. He is also the Democratic nominee for Texas Congressional District 30, which is Rep. Jasmine Crockett’s current seat.
Rev. Danielle Ayers, pastor of the Social Justice Ministry, said, “Fear and the othering of non-white people is being used to divide neighbor from neighbor, poor folk from poor folk, Black from brown folk, and working people from one another.
“Meeting the moment means we stop believing we are powerless, it means learning how to agitate, how to amplify our voices and our vision, and learning how to stand together…. You don’t have to have a title, you don’t have to be rich, famous, or an influencer, you just need to decide to care enough to show up. History tells us something, when ordinary people come together in faith, with conviction, courage, and commitment, things begin to change,” Ayers said.
Haynes showed a informational slide showing the lopsided numbers of elections in Texas.
In order to get one congressional seat in Texas, the slide revealed, it takes 430,000 residents. “In order to get one congressional seat for Latinos, it takes 1.2 million residents,” Haynes said. “That means it takes three times as many Latino voters to get a congressional seat as white people. The value of the Latino vote in Texas is thus equivalent in power to 1/3 of the white vote.
“If you’re Black in Texas, it takes two million people to get one congressional seat. That means the value of a Black vote is equivalent to 1/5 the power of the white vote.”
Speakers at the meeting discussed organizing a Freedom Summer 2.0 all over Texas, involving civics education, voter registration, and mobilization.
Haynes said, “Local power is the answer to fascist takeover, where they crack and pack, we energize and mobilize. I like what Roland Martin is saying, we’ve got to make sure there is at least 70% turnout in Black communities throughout the state of Texas.”
Haynes called for every Black church to make sure each of their congregants is registered and votes. He asked congregations, community groups, Divine 9 Fraternities and Sororities, and activists to adopt precincts and to train at least five poll chaplains per congregation.
“Trump has already asked Abbott, and Abbott gave it to him—the rolls of Texas voters are now in Washington, D.C. They are planning on showing up at the polls in November, so we gon’ show up, you bring your peeps, we are going to bring five of ours. We are going to stand there as preachers and people of faith and offer a moral presence,” Haynes said.
His plans also include quarterly registration checks, a rapid response list for voters purged or moved without notice, “Know Your Rights Sundays” events, and pulpit-to-policy advocacy.
“Voting rights must be enshrined in our constitution, in the meantime, push Congress to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Act,” said Haynes. He quoted the late Rev. Jesse Jackson, who said when high school seniors graduate high school, they should receive a diploma in one hand and a voter registration card in the other hand.
Haynes alsocalled for expanding the Supreme Court, as advocated by Elie Mystal, The Nation magazine’s justice correspondent. Mystal argues that the next Democratic president should add 20 Supreme Court Justices in their next term. “Gotta have 21, as far as I’m concerned,” Haynes said. He’s also pushing for an expansion of the House of Representatives.
Rev. Edwin Robinson and Brittany White of the Black Faith Coalition gave a training on how to politically organize. The group is leading Freedom Summer 2.0, which is organizing all over Texas. They explained the difference between an activist, an influencer, and an organizer and stressed the need for everyone to be an organizer.
Robinson said, “Power is the ability to act and influence” and it involves “lots of people acting in solidarity with discipline for the long term. Here’s the plan, we are going to pressure politicians, corporations, landlords, and institutions.”
White said, “Can I add one? Invisible billionaires.” She then named “Tim Dunn, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos.”
Robinson said, “There are people in this room who are politicians, own corporations, are landlords, and are a part of institutions. And if you are those people, you get to be pressured. If you have a problem with being pressured, give up your seat. When you decide to take that role, you sign up to be pressured by lots of people acting in solidarity with discipline for the long term. If that bothers you, you are not fit to represent us in those places.”
The purpose of all of this, according to the hosts? Change.
White said, “When you think change, think about getting relief, think about getting to see a positive balance in your bank account at the end of the month. If you do have a positive balance at the end of the month, your cousin ain’t trying to CashApp you for $20 at the end of the month. Because you don’t just want relief for yourself, you want relief for the people you love.”
“The way things are ain’t working for us y’all, we ain’t going back, we going forward,” Robinson said.
When getting people plugged into the movement, White suggested asking them, “If you could lead a movement, what would that movement look like? How would it change the world?”
That message was amplified by Rev. Kearra Haynes, who said, “We are planning for the next 250 years, not the next five.”
Closing the event was a powerful speech by Rev. David Malcolm McGruder:
“The work that the moment requires of us, is not going to be glamorous, it’s not going to be work that the media will be chasing us for an interview, it’s going to be toilsome, it’s going to be tedious, it’s going to be demanding, it’s going to be heavy, it’s going to be a struggle, it’s going to be holy work. Take heart in that tonight…(it’s) a noble obligation, a worthy ambition, a high and lofty aim that should mean more to you than the money in your bank account or the car in your driveway.
“May we tonight be troubled, bothered, shaken, burdened by what we see. May we look at violence and it trouble you, may you see injustice, and it grieve you, may you see poverty and it anger you into action. May we look squarely at corruption and it disturb our spirit. Let us see wrong and try to right it. See suffering and try to heal it. See war and do our part to stop it. May we go forth from this place as burdened people to build movements, to organize communities, to educate our babies, to challenge empires. Let us be burdened to tell our children like Frederick Douglass said, ‘Knowledge makes you unfit to be a slave.’…like Angela Davis, we declare ‘I’m no longer accepting the things I cannot change, but I’m changing the things that I cannot accept….’
“Let us go forth from this place convinced! That the vote is precious, that it is sacred! That it is won with the blood of martyrs. That we’re going to register everybody in our family to vote. And we won’t be satisfied until 70% of the Black community shows up at the polls from now until eternity.”
The full meeting can be watched on YouTube: Ground Zero.
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