AP journalists, led by race and ethnicity reporter Aaron Morrison, delivered a deep, well-sourced multimedia package showing how the coronavirus outbreak is forcing Black churches to change the way they mobilize voters during an election that many see as a tipping point.
Every major election year, the voter mobilization effort known as “souls to the polls” is a cornerstone of get-out-the-vote efforts for Black churches. In some states, the efforts are so successful they can tip the outcome in close races. But that effort will look much different in Black communities this year with COVID-19 taking a disproportionate toll on the Black community. To keep their bedrock tradition alive, Black churches are having to adapt.
New Mount Calvary Baptist Church members Marles Cooper, left, and Deacon Will visit with DuWayne Evans, right, who stopped on his bicycle and picked up a piece of pie from the church food shelf, in North Minneapolis, Oct. 1, 2020. The church’s bishop makes a plea year-round to both his congregants and others outside his church to get out and vote, emphasizing the efforts of past civil rights activists who fought for that right.
AP Photo / Jim Mone
Bishop Divar L. Bryant Kemp poses at the New Mount Calvary Baptist Church food shelf in North Minneapolis, Oct. 1, 2020. In addition to the food shelf, The bishop makes a plea year-round to both his congregants and others outside his church to exercise their right to vote.
AP Photo / Jim Mone
Attorney Keith White, center, a director of social justice initiatives at Christian Cultural Center, and New York City Council member Farah Louis, right, pass out voter information in the Brooklyn borough of New York, Sept. 18, 2020. White has been petitioning New York City elections officials to allow his predominantly Black church in Brooklyn to serve as a polling location. Whether or not that happens, the church will use its van and a charter bus to shuttle early voters between now and Election Day, he said.
AP Photo / Bebeto Matthews
Attorney Keith White, a director of social justice initiatives at Christian Cultural Center, stands next to a bus the church plans to update with COVID-19 protocols to transport people to the polls on Election Day, in the Brooklyn borough of New York, Sept. 18, 2020.
AP Photo / Bebeto Matthews
New York City Council member Farah Louis, right, who works as a volunteer with Christian Cultural Center’s Social Justice Initiative voter registration drive, tries to convince a woman to register at a table outside the the church in the Brooklyn borough of New York, Oct. 1, 2020. “Just a conversation of why it’s important to vote will lead them to the polls,” Louis said. “The ‘souls to the polls’ campaign is about getting everyone to the polls.”
AP Photo / Bebeto Matthews
AP journalists in all formats chronicled those changes, interviewing pastors, congregants and voting rights advocates nationwide. Gone are the crowded bus rides to polling places. In their place are smaller church vans with room for social distancing or ride shares to registration and early voting opportunities. In place of massive door-knocking campaigns, church volunteers are phone-banking and canvasing the homes of specific members to ensure mail-in and absentee ballots are requested and delivered before the deadlines.
Morrison worked with New York news researcher Jennnifer Farrar to include crucial context on how the voter campaign began during the civil rights era, and its importance in the Black community. Images of activists keeping the effort alive on the streets came from photographers Bebeto Matthews in New York and Jim Mone in Minneapolis, with Matthews and New York video journalist Ted Shaffrey teaming up on video edited by producer Emily Leshner.