Following a historic campaign launch in September, faith leaders, organized laborers and civil rights activists are joining forces to make a clear stance on democratic values ahead of Nov. 4 midterm elections.
In collaboration with the AFL-CIO and Rainbow PUSH Coalition, the Progressive National Baptist Convention (PNBC) is hosting a multi-stage “Get Out the Vote” campaign that includes stops in Georgia, Texas, North Carolina and South Carolina throughout October.
While the ethos focuses on voter education, mobilization, and protection, the Rev. George C. Gilbert Jr., an organizer of the multi-state tour, said the long-term goal is to strengthen the “how” and “why” of votership for Americans nationwide.
“We live in a time that I never thought that I would see,” Gilbert, chief of mobilization for the PNBC Social Action Commission, told The Informer, “a time where our president is more concerned about daylight saving time than he is about homeless people getting help, or single mothers being able to get groceries. … Without your vote, things will not get better. It will only get worse.”
The Rev. Dr. Keith W. Byrd, PNBC president and Northwest D.C. pastor, officially announced “The People’s Revival” campaign at his congregation on Sept. 22, where dozens gathered at the historic Zion Baptist Church to reconnect movements with a long history of collaboration.
What Byrd called a “reflection of the DNA of the denomination,” the monthlong initiative emulates the goals of the Civil Rights Movement with an approach that’s more centered around the “five touches” that can shape civic engagement.
“We believe that five touches can get someone off the couch and to a ballot box, and so that’s what we’re trying to provide: some of those touches,” Gilbert explained. “We have labor, we have civil rights, and we have the Black church working simultaneously under the same umbrella to do this work, but we are asking for folks all over the country to mail to these states.”
Efforts on the ground in the four states look like campaign organizers and volunteers visiting historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) and working with local churches — including Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church and Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina — to boost social events, Souls to the Polls training and educate folks from early voting and registration to volunteer recruitment.
Featuring rallies, seminars, and nightly revival services, the tour aims to trump the reality that nearly 90 million people failed to vote in the 2024 general elections, with a whopping majority hailing from the same Southern states under scrutiny due to GOP-led policy violence.
“On the first day of President Trump’s [second term], [the amount of] executive orders he passed that directly impacted those in the South, those who are the least, the lost, and the left out. We look at the actions of Project 2025 … that directly impacted SNAP, directly impacted healthcare, directly impacted Latino immigrants, brothers and sisters … the prices of gas, of groceries, of the essential things of life,” Gilbert emphasized. “There was a time that you could tell, specifically, African Americans that they had to vote because ‘folks died for your right to.’ That is still the case, but we now have more tangible evidence of the reason why.”
Thus, while the campaign starts within the three-pronged partnership, the work can take form anywhere, including spanning faith institutions under PNBC leadership and beyond.
“We are 2,500,000 members strong across the United States, and in portions of the Caribbean, and we are grateful to be leading the effort known as the People’s Revival,” said the PNBC president. “We have targeted four states … and through October, we will be hitting these particular states hard. Our goal is to … bring the community together under the banner of Jesus’ love expressed through justice.”
A Campaign of Faith, Legacy, and Being ‘In Action‘
One couldn’t ignore the symbolism of the moment on Sept. 22, as Byrd stood in a pulpit a few miles north of the White House, flanked by the son and junior namesake to the late Rev. Jesse Jackson, alongside other ministers from the PNBC — the very organization that once served as a spiritual home to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
In a nod to the traditions that birthed civic protections — from the Civil Rights Act of 1968 to the since-gutted Voting Rights Act — the People’s Revival thrives on the waning presence of one unshakable principle: faith.
“We must understand as people of faith: faith without works is dead, and so the first thing that we are challenging people to do across the country is to do something — get up, move, be in action,” Gilbert told The Informer. “The other thing about faith is that faith is the substance of things not seen, and so it is not about whether to quantify results, but we work in a way that our actions make moves; our actions create change.”
The Holy Trinity United Baptist Church assistant pastor credited faith-led resistance that paved the way for “world-changing” progress during the Civil Rights Era, namely pointing to the rallying cry heard across Edmund Pettus Bridge circa 1965 — when a then-25-year-old theologian and later Congressman John Lewis (D-Ga.) led more than 600 protestors in a fight for racial justice in Selma, Alabama.
Other historic accounts of African Americans finding solace in faith included living through chattel slavery and Jim Crow, the prison-industrial complex, generational economic suppression, and navigating an education system that denies the truths of Black people in the nation’s history.
“Through all of those stumbling blocks, all of those walls of exploitation, we find a way to continue — to not just survive, but to be on top, and all it takes is for good men to do nothing for Satan to succeed,” Gilbert continued. “When good men and women are active, as the Black community has always been, there’s nothing that’s going to hold us back.”
As faith leaders, laborers and community organizations arrive in Georgia, Texas, and both the Carolinas, the goal is that the work will be steadfast across the nation.
Organizers of the People’s Revival are sending cards and text blasts to precincts with the lowest voter turnout in those four states, while eligible participants are encouraged to push the necessity of voting with their own mailed-in letters from around the country.
For those looking to join on-site, the initiative also hosts social events, Souls to the Polls training and volunteer recruitment for postcard writing, phone bank operations, poll observation and election-day ride-sharing. Meanwhile, the next “Blessed Ballot Sunday,” featuring prayer and voter encouragement, is scheduled for Oct. 18 and 25, with “Movement Mondays” reserved for virtual training for volunteers.
Yusef D. Jackson, president and CEO of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, was among those highlighting the power of building coalitions across denominations, organizations and industries on Sept. 22, calling it a moment that requires people to “change our relationships for the good of our people.”
“The Scriptures say, ‘Do not grow weary in well doing; in due season we shall reap a harvest.’” Grab somebody and get them to join the Rainbow Coalition; grab somebody and get them to join the NAACP,“ said the son of the late Jesse Jackson.
Reflecting on the work to be done in the nation’s capital, Gilbert implored all churches in the PNBC and beyond to invest in partnerships like the People’s Revival, which he reminded serves as one of many avenues to uplift marginalized voices with all that’s at stake.
As the organizers see it, those looking to cast their efforts in the campaign ought to be prepared for a journey that begins — not ends — with the midterm elections on Nov. 3, while remembering that God can make a mountain out of a molehill “when you place it in His hands.”
“We are at a time that the people need to take back power,” Gilbert stated candidly. “We have a Trump now; we have folks who are voting against the lives of the people and trying to take away the people’s voice, but we believe God will ultimately help us to be on top.”
