Mobile community members met Monday evening for a Peace Rally meeting at Great Day Latte.
Hosted by the Poor People’s Campaign in partnership with Repairers of the Breach, the gathering focused on action and strategizing following Alabama’s redistricting verdict.
Alex “Huggy Bear da Poet” Lofton II opened the meeting introducing himself as a co-coordinator for the Poor People’s Campaign . He shared the core goal of the meeting : to spark conversation around political action ahead of the August special primary election and November general elections.
Shalela Dowdy, a former Alabama House Direct 97 candidate, led the meeting. She opened by sharing her experience as an airwoman and a Mobile native.
“When I was in Atlanta, I was hanging with Mobile people a lot,” she shared. “And I was like, ‘Okay, our state is not going to progress forward if everybody’s in Houston, Dallas, and Atlanta.’”
Dowdy continued sharing her experience while campaigning for the statehouse, highlighting a lack of access to voting knowledge and enthusiasm, and limited understanding around the voting process as obstacles to increasing Black voter turnout.
Throughout the meeting, community members shared their perspectives on the struggle to mobilize Black Mobile voters . Some cited systemic barriers, others citing a generational divide between older, more conservative voters and younger, more radical voters.
The meeting concluded with attendees encouraged to network and stay in touch as the state moves closer to election season. The date of the next Moral Monday meeting is still to be determined .