Newly formed caucus encourages votes, increased engagement
Published June 6, 2014
by Sue Book, New Bern Sun Journal, June 4, 2014.
North Carolina Democratic Party efforts to organize African American Caucuses in all 100 counties brought the state party chairman and caucus president to New Bern this week with tough words to inspire change.
Party Chairman Randy Voller told those at the Omega Center for Tuesday night’s Eastern District Regional African American Caucus that regaining control of the General Assembly is a must if they don’t want 125 years of everything built by a progressive ideology to be destroyed.
Nearly 100 people from at least five counties assembled for the two-hour meeting adjourned. The meeting took place in New Bern because the party’s Craven County African American Caucus is one of the newest in the state.
Started in January with 11 members and Ann Herndon as president, the group has more than tripled and sees more growth coming quickly to work with other Eastern county caucuses in Pitt, Wayne and Bertie counties, which also had representatives present.
Voller said, “While Republicans ignore climate change, depletion of water, soil, minerals and energy resources … their madness makes progress in our state impossible.”
“Economic growth at the expense of all and everything, is a legacy of the Republican culture of ‘Greed is Good,’” he said.
He said the party supports growth in all ethnic caucuses and sees them highlighting particular needs and supporting the candidates, like Pitt County’s first African American female commissioner, recently elected Commissioner Mary Perkins Williams.
Willie Fleming of Charlotte, president of the state Democratic Party African American Caucus, said the caucuses are needed “to get people in office we can hold accountable.”
“We man phone banks and pass out flyers for candidates for a fish sandwich and a soda but our tax money is not coming back to our neighborhoods,” he said.
“Nobody else can tell you what’s going on in your community but you,” Fleming said. “The time has come to train members and support them to hold office” to work passionately for issues faced most directly by African American communities: high unemployment, education opportunities and disproportionate incarceration.
He said 95 percent of African Americans are Democrats but to have their specific concerns addressed by the party they must put aside petty differences and work together for candidates who understand and support their particular needs, not let it be assumed they will just vote for any Democrat.
Marshall Adame, the Democratic candidate for the U.S. House District 3 seat, spoke briefly and said he shares a common bond with the caucus since he is the son of a Hispanic immigrant and retired Marine who also benefited from the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
