Actor Perry financing ‘Souls to the Polls’ events
The actor, director and producer Tyler Perry is financing Florida “Souls to the Polls” events — retooled for pandemic-era social distancing.
Souls events during the final Sundays of big election campaigns have evolved into powerful tools for generating excitement in Black communities, generally starting after Sunday services at African American churches followed by a procession to the nearest early voting site.
In Fort Lauderdale, for example, they’ve attracted large groups along Sistrunk Boulevard, the main street of historically black northwest Fort Lauderdale, concluding with a rally near the early voting site at the African American Research Library and Culture Center. The Sunday before the 2014 Florida governor’s election, then Vice President Joe Biden appeared at Mount Hermon AME Church’s school just before the day’s march.
The coronavirus pandemic means there aren’t big church services and traditional parades aren’t possible; there was a car parade on Sistrunk instead of a having a march before the primaries in August.
The Equal Ground Education Fund said Thursday it’s launching a $500,000 “Park and Praise” campaign supported by Perry, who recently became a billionaire. Equal Ground has events planned for Broward, Miami-Dade, Palm Beach and 23 other Florida counties which it described as “a massive socially-distanced ‘Souls to the Polls’ effort to educate and turnout Black voters across the state.”
Organizers said people, safely distanced in their vehicles, would hear from faith and community leadership, elected officials and candidates, gospel choirs and some musical entertainers.
Despite the pandemic, “our voices will be heard,” Jasmine Burney-Clark, founder of the Equal Ground Education Fund, said in a statement.