Hmm grace and peace grace and peace grace and peace be unto you from our lord our risen redeemer jesus the living christ to god be the glory for the great things god has done the great things god is doing and the great things god is about to do you have tuned into
Conversations with a pastor and i am the reverend dr kevin d miller who has the wonderful gift and blessing of serving as the pastor of the carter community amy church located in queens new york we’re so grateful that you thought enough of god and of us to be with us
Today on conversations with the pastor this is a social media platform and a program that was birthed out of this season of the pandemic the purpose of which is to gather people from many different walks of life many different life experiences who can share information to our community
Through a christian perspective and a christian lens to help us understand how we can have a greater influence in our communities a greater influence in politics and basically a greater influence in the body of christ so i’m grateful that you’re here with us today and i’m so very excited to have you here
For this special edition of what i’m calling the sorority edition of conversations with a pastor now generally generally i would take time to introduce our guest but i’m not going to do that today because i feel woefully inadequate to be able to do this so i decided to bring in somebody to be
Able to introduce our guest today she is the first lady of carter community amy church a member of zeta phi beta sorority and also as a member of zeta phi beta sorority like all of our guests today is a member of the national panhellenic council which represents these four international organizations these great
International organizations so we thought it would be best to have somebody who was a member of these organizations to introduce those who are also members of these organizations so i do want to say good day to the first lady of cardiff community amy church good day pastor miller and good day to
All of my sister greeks it is indeed my pleasure and my honor to do these introductions this morning and we will begin with our first guest mrs onita coward mayors who for over two decades as a media and political strategist has been at the forefront of media and
Voter engagement in new york city she’s been credited for creating and launching several civic engagement first currently she is the vice president of the miram group a governmental firm providing strategic consulting experience in government political campaigns and communications where she advises a broad range of clients on both local and state matters
Prior to joining the miran group mrs coward mayor served as the director for voter assistance for the new york city campaign finance board where she was key in the launch of new york city votes its non-partisan voter education arm she proudly led new york city to first place
In the united states for highest number of people registered in a single day on national voter registration day from 2015 through 2017. mrs coward mayers was the co-founder of the youth poet laureate program whose poets have performed before audiences at new york city city hall inaugurations and most recently of course the 2021
Biden harris inauguration born in panama and raised in brooklyn she graduated from buffalo state college and receives her mba from the ziklin school of business at baruch college city university of new york mrs mayers and afro latina is a proud member of alpha kappa alpha sorority incorporated welcome my sister thank you
Next we have with us this morning our good friend reverend dr kimberly k holmes esquire she has been a member of delta sigma theta sorority incorporated since april 25th 1986. she was initially initiated under the delta zeta collegiate chapter at montclair state university she is a member of the north east jersey
Alumni chapter and she serves as their chaplain dr holmes also serves as a member of the sorority’s eastern regional chaplains council professionally kim serves on the board of trustees of the meadowlands conservation trust she is the chief of staff and assistant commissioner for the department of community affairs
Kimberly has extensive experience as an attorney and prosecutor she previously served as a municipal prosecutor in east orange and as an assistant prosecutor section chief of the bias crimes unit of the bergen county prosecutor’s office kim also served as chair of the fee arbitration committee and as an
Attorney member of the supreme court ethics committee she was recently appointed by the new jersey state supreme court amen as an attorney member to the women in the courts committee kimberly is a graduate of that great theological seminary drew theological seminary where she earned her doctor of ministry and master of divinity degrees
And serves as an ordained reverend director of training at saint luke baptist church in the village of harlem she graduated from seton hall university also one of my alma maters school of law and obtained her jd in 1993 and from montclair state in 1988 where she obtained a ba in political science
Kim has been admitted to practice law in the state of new jersey since the year 1993. welcome to our dear friend dr holmes now i have the pleasure of introducing my sorority sister ms krista jones who has been committed who has committed her life to public service and developing leaders
And is passionate about the power of politics to change lives in 2006 she founded vote lead impact to educate black leaders about the political process christa has served as director of outreach for two members of congress and currently serves as an aide to the arlington county board
Krista has played a pivotal role in virginia politics managing several campaigns and serving on the steering committee for the women’s summit which mobilized 1 000 attendees to help regain democratic control of the virginia general assembly in 2019 krista hosts her own show a seat at the table on arlington independent media she
Produces and hosts a radio show for the league of women voters of arlington and writes a column for a r l now dot com she is a graduate of the george washington university graduate school of political management the sorensen institute of political leadership and the women’s campaign
School at yale and just in case you were wondering krista’s favorite holiday of the year is actually election day krista is a member of the delta sigma zeta chapter of zeta phi beta sorority in gainesville florida welcome mice aurora thank you for having me and finally we have our very dear friend and
Pastor’s childhood friend the doctor felicia blakeney dr blakeney is a native of the washington heights inwood section of upper manhattan and she earned her bachelor of science degree in public relations from my other alma mater syracuse university where she was initiated into the theta tau chapter of sigma gamma rho sorority
Dr blakemy went on to earn her master of education and doctor of education degrees from capella university a higher education professional in northern virginia with more than 20 years of experience dr blakeney is focused on successful first-year student engagement dr blakeney has held a number of high level positions within sigma gamma
Rho sorority including being elected as the northeastern region director where she supervised over 80 alumnae and collegiate chapters as well as two international chapters she chartered the first alumni chapter in south korea dr blakeney is a life member and ruby member of sigma gamma rho sorority a ruby
Member is someone who has at least 22 years of service to the organization in fact this year dr blakemy will celebrate her 34th anniversary as a member of sigma gamma rho sorority again i just want to say welcome to all of my sister greeks this is however conversations with a pastor
And not conversations with the first lady so i am going to move back into my lane i want to hand it back over to my husband and my pastor and my fraternity brother and thank him for this opportunity the reverend dr kevin v miller well praise god praise god and praise
God again i want to thank our first lady and my queen for handling and offering those wonderful introductions i am excited to have our guest this week and we’re going to jump right into it and into this great conversation i’ve so been looking forward to this conversation
And i’ve been giddy about i was sharing with them right before we got on today that i didn’t even sleep well last night because i was just excited to be in this place and in this space uh so as we as we get into this conversation today
Let me just share with our viewers a little bit of the formatting they’re going to be a series of questions and each of our panelists will lead at different times in terms of this conversation in terms of answering the question but before we get too far into it
It has been my experience particularly during this election cycle uh that many people may not know or understand the significance of these black greek letter organizations that you see see before you today some of this came to the awareness of the general culture of our country with the election of president biden but
Most specifically with the election of vice president kamala harris who is a member of alpha kappa alpha sorority you may have heard vice president harris refer to the d9 or the divine nine so these are the sororities that are a part of this nine-member organization it’s not a member international organization
Which is why we want to have this conversation today with the sisters outstanding sisters in their own right doing great things but we wanted to just take a moment and just hear a little bit i wanted you to hear a little bit about the history of each of these organizations so let me
Start our time to and let me also say this uh i’m going to be going back and forth uh sometimes i’ll be formal and i’ll say you know dr so-and-so other times i may just call them by their first name because i know them but i do not want to diminish in
Any way uh who they are and all that they are doing it’s just because that there is a level of familiarity that i have with each and every one of them uh but let me at this time uh invite onita coward mayors uh to talk a little bit about
About her organization and we’ll go through this in a direction in which they were founded i talked about this this significant moment of history that we find ourselves in uh so anita my question to you today is a member of alpha kappa alpha sorority uh kamala harris is one of your sorority sisters
Uh and just talk a little bit about about this this moment about being able to see her be elected and what this means in terms of the organization and share absolutely some information to our viewers about alpha kappa alpha sorority most definitely and thank you uh pastor miller for inviting me to your
Program and for assembling this opportunity for me to be with my divine nine sisters during this historical moment in our country you know it’s really with great pride that i represent as a member of the illustrious alpha kappa alpha sorority incorporated and my home chapter of delta omega
In brooklyn new york uh alpha kappa alpha sorority incorporated was the brilliant vision of nine college students on the campus of howard university on january 15 1908 so just imagine the bravery during the turn of the century to dare and to execute i get goose pimples and goosebumps
Every time i think about it the sorority was founded on a mission of you know comprised of five basic tenants that have remained unchanged to this day they include cultivating and encouraging high scholastic and ethical standards to promote unity and friendship among college women to study and help alleviate problems concerning
Girls and women in order in to improve their social stature to maintain a progressive interest in college life and to be of service to all mankind pastor miller i know you asked me to identify two significant women of the sorority well you know that is really hard but what i will
Offer is first ethel hedgeman lyle who i wear her pen she was the visionary and the principal founder of alpha kappa alpha sorority incorporated she was an educator and it was her exceptional talents that propelled her to spare head the movement that led to the founding of the nation’s first
Black sorority so the second person would be vice president of the united states kamala harris pastor you asked about first well vice president harris is the first woman the first black woman the first jamaican south asian to hold this office and she makes all of us so very proud
She has taken our sorority proudly on her journey and she holds up the legacy of the sisterhood of over 300 000 alpha kappa alpha women who are supreme in service and all the alpha cap alpha women in between do the important work every day to lead and hold our nation together
But i want to give you a bonus the incomparable katherine johnson an american mathematician whose calculations as a nasa employee were critical to the success of the first and subsequent united states human space flights as captured in the hidden figures so i you know i’ll begin with uh those thank you
Thank you so much anita and thank you for sharing that wonderful information and giving us that insight let me invite dr holmes to share a little bit about delta sigma theta thank you dr miller and thank you mrs anita myers i consider it an honor and a privilege to come
After you delta sigma theta was founded on january 13 1913 by 22 collegiate soils also at howard university and what i think is um apropos today is to quote um when delta sigma theta was the first organization to participate in the tournament of roses parade in pasadena california
On january 1st 2013 and the float was entitled transforming communities through sisterhood and service and that’s where i like to begin with talking about delta sigma theta yes we have our five point thrust and a five point thrust deal with economic development education international awareness and involvement physical and mental health
And political awareness and involvement so those are the five point thrusts that delta sigma theta focuses on is a public service is our primary focus with a particular interest in the african-american community but transforming communities through sisterhood and service will also cause us to collaborate with members of the divine nine with akas
With zetas with members of sigma gamma rho and all other like-minded organizations so i get joy when we have events and we collaborate with other sister organizations the first public act of delta sigma theta was to participate in the women’s suffrage march in washington dc on march 3rd 1913.
We are the largest greek letter organization and we do focus on those five programmatic thrusts that i talked about but what gives us joy is actually being in the trenches with our other sister organizations two of the first i like to lift up is shirley chisholm because shirley
Chisholm was the first black woman and member of the us congress and she was the first african-american woman to run for president of the united states so while we’re happy and we’re so glad about our first vp let us not forget those who paved the
Way so i just want to lift up shirley chisholm and the other person i’d like to lift up is loretta loretta lynch who is it an attorney from the eastern district of new york and on april 24 2015 she was confirmed as the attorney general for these united states
So those are the two who i like to lift up i thank you for the history that was provided about alpha kappa alpha and i look forward to hearing the history of the other two distinguished guests so thank you so much dr holmes thank you so very much uh for giving us that
Insight regarding delta sigma theta sorority uh and and i i must openly confess my bias about our next presenter uh being a part of of what i consider to be the the greatest sorority this side of heaven uh but and openly in my bias and i’ll
Say a little bit more about that in a minute but let me invite miss krista jones a member of zeta phi beta sorority uh to introduce herself and share a little bit about zeta this morning well thank you so much brother miller and thank you to all of the ladies on our panel
This morning i’m really excited to talk more about the impact of our organizations in the history of our organizations phi beta sorority incorporated was founded on january 16th 1920 at howard university so obviously that means we just completed our centennial year and just thinking back on the year really gave me another
Opportunity i was initiated into zeta in 1998 at the university of florida but last year particularly with everything going on which really caused me to reflect about the strength of our organization and how we’ve endured so much we are an organization that was founded with the similar principles of the other
Organizations but i really believe that we have excelled in particular at service and sisterhood service and the way we impact the community although we may not you may not always hear about it you will find zetas in almost every community doing the hard work
And when i like i said when i think and reflect about last year and think about the turmoil and how zeta really rose to the occasion despite the fact that we were trying to celebrate our centennial and still try to serve the community i think about uh particularly our work with the march
Of dimes so zeta has had almost a 50-year partnership with the march of dimes through our storks nest program and we work to provide prenatal education to low-income women and i bring that up in particular because we are obviously going through a crisis right now with black women in
Terms of the disparities with maternal mortality so that’s a partnership that we saw a long time ago saw the importance and we’re still working on it today to address that major problem zeta also is a really international organization we were the first d9 organization or nphc organization to have a chapter in
The on the continent of africa um we have had a brief hiatus with that but we are back now we have two african chapters we’re really excited about that so that international spin and just diversity within the organization has always been something that we’ve really focused on as well
And something obviously i didn’t mention in the beginning and brother miller set up so well we are constitutionally bound with our brothers of phi beta sigma and the reason why i think that’s important is because to me that also just signifies the spirit of family and that brings me to sisterhood as well
As an organization we have really really focused on bringing women together we were also the first to create an auxiliary through our amikai program in the late 40s and that is where we have women in the community who we work with to do service with as well
So and in terms of women who are again there are so many zetas that have made great impacts in our community i really just want to quickly mention donna edwards the former congresswoman as well as anita hill anita hill obviously we all know who she is but what
I love about these two women is they persevered again that i think is the the story of zeta five beta is persevering and succeeding over the last 100 years so thank you krista thank you so very much for that insight around zeta phi beta sorority and let me now ask
Dr felicia blakeney from sigma gamma rho sorry to share a little bit of the history of sigma gamma rho thank you and good morning pastor miller and first lady miller and to all of my fellow d9 sisters sigma gamma rho sorority incorporated has the distinction of being the only historically african american sorority
That was founded on a predominantly white campus specifically butler university on november 12 1922. what is significant about that is being in the state of indiana which at that time was notorious historically for high percentages of lynching and so to have seven courageous african-american ladies to decide that they wanted to
Establish a sorority um during that unique time period of american history stands out for me and all of the members of sigma gamma rho sorority incorporated our slogan is greater service greater progress we are very interested in uplifting all mankind through varieties of service initiatives the two that are my favorite
Include the swim 1922. we were the first organization of the d9 to work with swim usa and we looked at this initiative because statistics show that african americans uh have high incidence of not being able to swim and that correlates therefore in higher incidence of drowning
So we are trying to get into our communities to provide swimming education and safety my other favorite one and we have several is our annual youth symposium which is held in march every year on the same day nationwide and we look at different topics that negatively impact our youth and we
Address those different topics by bringing in guest speakers and of course when we were pre pandemic we were able to do that um face-to-face but we have now turned that around and we’re successfully planning to do that this coming year um virtually two members that i would like to
Highlight and we do have several i’m going to start with sora hattie mcdaniel she is the first african american to receive an academy award so we’re very very proud about that heritage she was the first and of course we subsequently have had more people from our communities to go on and achieve
Those accomplishments and on a more personal note hailing from syracuse university and a charter member of uh theta tau chapter is uh soror audrey jones she is a two two time emmy award-winning senior producer for abc’s the view and so i’m extremely proud of her work and of her show
Which has brought on many political leaders and different topics that um impact all of us today so i would just like to say that uh we are the baby sisters of the d9 but we work collaboratively with everyone in the d9 we know that there is strength in numbers
Our colors do not define us our slogans do not define us what defines us collectively is the vision of our founders and we have an obligation to uplift them each and every day to ensure that we are providing meaningful service to all mankind thank you so much
Thank you so much dr blakely and thank you to all of you uh let me say this to our viewers because you’ve heard each of our guests today talk about the d9 the divine nine uh we have representatives from the sororities today but i would be remiss
If i didn’t just make sure that i named uh the fraternities that are associated because you may be saying well there’s four but you keep talking about nine uh but the fraternities that are associated with this are are alpha phi alpha fraternity kappa alpha psi fraternity omega sci-fi fraternity
Phi beta sigma fraternity and iota phi theta fraternity and maybe there will be an opportunity later on to have representatives on from those organizations but today is not about them this is about history it’s about this moment it’s about what we’ve had a chance to see during this election cycle many of
You know and have witnessed firsthand uh what has taken place uh during this election cycle we’ve heard allegations of election fraud uh we’ve seen an insurrection on the nation’s capital we’ve seen uh people question elected officials questioning what they know to be accurate votes that have been taken
Across the country you’ve seen people particularly people of color and communities of color steps taken against them to be disenfranchised during this electoral process there has been so much going on and krista i want to send the question to you as we look at this this moment in history
Uh after all of that uh from my position i believe from all of you to god be the glory that the inauguration did happen that president biden was elected and vice president harris was elected and both of them installed as the leaders of this country but krista i know that you’ve been on
The front lines i know that you are down in the virginia d.c area i know that public service has been your life what are some of the things what are some of your reflections on this moment even as we celebrate this moment with our new leadership of this country
Thank you brother miller so when i think about everything that’s going on right now obviously these are tremendous challenges and as i’ve been kind of speaking to different groups lately and thinking about our history as a country i just am reminded of the fact that
We are on this long journey to reach the goal that our founders set for us as a nation right so for me what really rings true is equality and justice those are enshrined in the constitution obviously we don’t have them yet but we’ve been working towards that
As we try to get to that goal there are going to be some steps backward there’s going to be steps to some side to the side they’re going to be sometimes when we simply are going to seem like we’re surging ahead and events in society have traditionally helped us kind of do that
Recognize for example i’ll use 20 20 as a perfect example you know we’re going along thinking you know we have our regular issues that we face every day in life and we’re hit with a global pandemic and we’re hit with uncovering the systemic racism of course it’s always been there but uncovering it
And so there’s it seems like things are speeding up in terms of how we reacted to that with all the protests with all the conversations with all the reading people are starting to white people in particular are starting to to be a little bit more honest about
What’s going on in this nation and that’s going to help us go forward then we’re hit with january 6. so and that makes it seem like where we’ve taken a step back but the way that like you just said the way that we made the inauguration successful the way that
We are celebrating all the achievements that we’ve made are so critical so i just want everyone to think about this in terms of long journey and the different steps that you take i am cor of course am very excited about um vice president harris’s um swearing-in of her being the vice president
I’ve worked for 15 years to elect more americans at all levels so this is super super exciting but as i reflect on my work i also think about what’s next so there’s we do have a lot more african-americans that we have had in the last 10
15 years or they’ve been elected in the last 10 15 years but what happens when they get in those positions so i think we have really traditionally focus a lot on representation or having a black face in certain areas and that’s really important representation is extremely important
But we also need to focus on the policies and what happens when we get in those seats and what happens when we’re at the table so i just encourage all of us to kind of look inward and see what is it that we can do to advance the policies to get us
Closer to that long goal of equality and justice chris i appreciate your response and let me invite anita to jump in because oneida has worked on the front lines particularly around the area of voter registration and voter awareness and and what became critical in this election uh was really
Two aspects one is to get out the vote efforts that have been made across the country particularly down in georgia but also what has been put on the forefront is this this question of voter fraud and you you’re seeing even now down in georgia they are already taking steps uh to try
To put laws in place to impact the next election cycle in terms of requesting voter identification and all these other pieces here so somebody who i know has worked in government and worked on on these issues uh let me invite anita and certainly all of our panelists to jump in on this
Conversation about the moment well i want to really thank um my sister krista uh with her comments um definitely uh what we’re seeing here is the uh culmination of our history right and it’s better for it to be on full display uh and it’s better that we begin to
Focus and hunker in now on the policies that are going to start to um pull pull away at the root of what has been killing us uh you know i i wanted to you know just kind of say first that the election of president joe biden and vice president kamala harris uh
Also represents the louder voice of america it’s it represents the louder voice right those votes were the louder voice it also you know i know the ugliness of the recent past and we cannot forget that but the business and the humanity of our country is now first on the agenda
This is what we are frankly good at right our organizations we know how to come together we know how to inform and educate our communities and to mobilize them um across america people stood on long lines during a worldwide pandemic to cast their ballot they massed up they wore face shields they
Sat they brought snacks they traveled alone and they brought others with them and in the end they voted for a better future a reimagined future uh and one that their the hopes will right the wrongs so there is a long list of black female powerhouses and of course stacey
Abrams is at the top of that who created and led movements of success for voters around our country and especially in georgia um so voters chose to speak up and we know that they will now not stop but this again is where we step in so we know we’re dealing we have
Um all across america people are still living very busy lives they have to afford their families feed their families shelter their families and there have to be those of us who are willing to stand uh in you know for them and to continue to mobilize them i’m so happy about this conversation and
The work that we continue to do because that is what we’re going to be doing we’re going to be focusing on the what’s next we’re going to be focusing on how do we make sure we bring everyone along with us yes i worked in new york city for 20 years on
Voter assistance and getting people registered to vote but this is the moment everyone’s been waiting on right they’ve been waiting on a moment where seemingly we have all the pieces in the right place and what are we going to do with it and just because we voted someone in doesn’t mean
We give them all latitude to make our decisions we need to make sure that our vision is crystal clear and that we are advocating for that and lobbying them for that and making sure that as we address the racial disparities in our country that we’re doing it from the root
And that we’re not waiting for um small changes here or there that are partial changes and remember we are part of america the great american of can america can afford to fix these problems and the notion that we cannot is ludicrous so we need to make sure
That we stay on the battle lines and the battlegrounds and making sure that we get back to the root of the problem and the policies therefore address those you know um i was so moved by amanda gorman the national youth poet laureate and one of the things she said
Is that our country is not destroyed but just unfinished so i believe now we are forever changed so america you know i think we need to get ready to saddle up uh and do the work well nita thank you for that response and for helping us think a little bit about
Uh about this new next right dr blakeney i know you’ve worked in this area of of higher education and you’ve you’ve dealt with uh helping the shape mold dreams helped shape direction even even within sigma gamma rho serving in the position your formal position you were in the position of overseeing over 80
Chapters within your organization which i know has to deal with vision casting direction impact collaboration with other organizations say a word today about about this new next something that i think just will continue in my opinion to shift and to move over time there’s always going to be a new next
Sometimes we get very complacent but i’m of the opinion there’s always going to be a new next but what are your thoughts you’ve heard from some of our panelists already what are your thoughts about this next moment that we need to move into well i think both of my sisters have addressed very
Eloquently the reality of now as well as the need to envision our new next i’m going to just speak very briefly on a very uh basic local grassroots efforts definitely we have to always now be on the mindset about voter education getting out and being in the trenches getting our people represented
At the local state and federal levels but it begins with day-to-day conversations at the workplace even in a virtual setting where we must be very vocal and address things that are very prevalent in our face where it is disparities in employment opportunities perhaps at the workplace calling that out not just being passive
I know that i have strategically maneuvered myself in um various ways to become part of the governance structure of where i uh am employed because that is where the policies are made and there are oftentimes people that don’t look like any of us that don’t understand why we
Are in need of um increasing diversity inclusion and equity so we need to continue to educate ourselves in that regard simultaneously with what we’re trying to achieve in terms of local state and federal elections we need to be bold we can’t be silent and it should not always be
Advocating just because something has happened to us we need to be vigilant when we see others that are not being treated fairly or not being given their fair uh opportunity to be at the table to implement change so that is where i think we should also continue to focus
I know that we’re doing these things but it would be good to just remind us that we need to be doing these things harmoniously and in conjunction you know you talk about not waiting for something to happen right it seems and particularly around communities of color uh we are a very reactive community
Something happens and that’s when we want to march uh something’s taken away and that’s what we want to kick and scream uh civil rights are violated and then we’re up in arms uh and and and uh dr holmes i want to put the question to you in this regard
Because i know you are a trained litigator i know that you have been on the issue of civil rights for quite some time and involved in our communities about how do we move from a reactive stance and posture to a proactive stance and posture as we begin to shape policy in our
Communities as we begin to be become more active and a follow-up to that that i will give to each of our panelists is how do we avoid complacency uh we’re in a point right now where we can be very we can say oh we’ve arrived we’ve done it uh but but
We saw that once we got complacent i think with um with the obama administration what has happened and now here we are with a second opportunity we always don’t get second opportunity so first uh to dr holm just on the issue of how do we take a proactive stance
On things versus a reactive stance and then to the group how do we avoid complacency thank you so much dr felicia and dr miller and i have a mask that i wear and it says spot on spot on and i just want to say to dr felicia you were spot on
When you were speaking this morning and i think we can move from being a reactionary group to um having a strategic plan because a lot of times we want to march just for the sake of marching we uh make our our pitch to the media we get our play in all these
Newspapers and we go on tv and then after that we hit a brick wall till the next thing happens so i think strategic planning sitting at the table and i i so embrace what dr felicia said sometimes at the table there will be people who may not look like you
But embrace what we’re doing because it might have a small impact on their lives and you know dr king spoke about that he called it the interrelated structure of reality and he said that what affects one of us directly affects all of us indirectly so when we saw what happened on capitol
Hill and we saw those faces that didn’t look like us it still impacted us because a lot of us drew correlations between what happened when there was the black lives matter march and what happened when it was the um domestic terrorist march and we saw the different reactions to law enforcement but
My point is there needs to be strategic planning and we need to have a measured outcome we need to collect data to show the facts of what we’re doing and how and we need effective follow-up so i would say strategic planning i would say invite people to the table
That don’t look like you don’t be afraid to form partnerships with others and also realize that what might affect someone directly affects all of us indirectly have date collection of data and have effective follow-up so those are the things that i would add to not being a reactionary type of people
I love what dr holm said you know i think that we don’t generally take that approach to things like this like politics and advocacy and i think it’s really important that we do that i also think we should start to institutionalize some practices so when we find something that’s good
Work it into everything we do reward use the behavioral use behavioral science reward people for doing good work zeta has our z-hope program where you get points for doing service we would do it anyways but we get points for doing service so why not add if you work with another
Organization you get points for that too if you work with the league of women voters or the deltas so i think that there are so many things that we do in other areas like dr holmes said like strategically strategic planning that we can implement to really end up being successful in
This area as well bonita we see you but we just need to hear you sorry i just wanted to jump in there also and to concur with what my sisters have been saying and i wanted to add to that that clearly we know now is the time to harness and engage our community
But as tip o’neill once said all politics are local so i would really encourage everyone to look locally to make um the impact locally i loved the conversation about navigating yourself at work and making sure you’re in the right place to make this decisions that will be institutionalized in new york city
We know this june we have our primary elections where one that’s a big deal in itself we’re not accustomed voting in june so information bringing information to our communities is vital uh and then also we have an extreme slate from mayor to comptroller to borough presidents district attorneys to city council seats
It’s a lot voter education is going to be critical in the next six months and for the first time this year well the first time we are voting in new york city using a ranked choice voting system which is going to be daunting for new yorkers
Who don’t know that we are and don’t know what that means so i think we have a lot of education ahead of us in the next few months to make sure that our communities come back out to vote and they understand who they’re voting for and they understand what the voting
System is going to be uh and uh and i know we we really work great when we um cut work collectively so those of us who are in new york i you know i’m putting it out here right now i would love to collaborate with you uh and your chapters
Uh to do this voter education uh so uh i just want to hearken back to thinking uh locally and making an impact locally i know dr blakeman’s getting ready to jump in felicia excuse me no you know you talked about the ranked uh voting pro just say what that is for our
Viewers so they can just begin to understand that now and then we’ll go to dr felicia sure well ranked choice voting is a cis is a system that was recently voted on in the new york city council and it means like you know new yorkers we’ve been going on a little of a
Merry-go-round recently and are voting uh in our elections and now there’s going to be a new system that will be tested in our special elections some that are coming up in queens right away and then in june for our massive primary right which is going to be the first time
That people will see this system and what it really means is that you get to look at all of the candidates for a particular office so if it’s mayor you’re going to have the whole slate and you’ll be able to say who’s your first choice then you’ll be able to say
Who’s your second choice and you’ll give you’ll have five opportunities you don’t have to use all five of them but you’ll have the opportunity of ranking from your first choice to your fifth choice and that part of that is also not to encourage people to say well i’m
Just gonna vote for this person five times because it won’t count five times it’s only gonna count that one time so you want to make sure that people know not to waste their votes but what is good about that is you’ll be able to the the way it’ll work is that when
You have to have a certain percentage of the vote in order to win that seat and um if no one reaches that in the first count the bottom person you voted for drops out and those votes shift up and they continue to do that it’s a very
Technical thing and it’s all done behind the scenes so we don’t necessarily see that but there’ll be a motion of how our votes are moved and part of what it does it stops us from having runoff elections which are extremely expensive uh and people rarely come out for run-off elections so
It’s supposed to be an answer to that um but it’s going to be very hard make no mistake people are not going to know so as much as we can start internally even with our chapters because we have large chapters starting even with our chapters of making sure that we know that this
Ranked choice voting is going to be here and how it operates and then collaborating to make sure our communities know our church is no so and those are the things that we do best but again you know things are usually on the black woman to make sure our communities are uh well informed
Absolutely thank you so much i didn’t mean to direct you dr felicia i just want to make sure that information oh no problem i was interested in what this voting thing is as a native new yorker who’s now re-planted herself so thank you for that explanation um the
Only thing that i wanted to add you spoke about we as a people not being complacent so i want to take a real life situation um as an educator in higher ed whenever i have students that look like me and i see that they are not producing and i know that they
Can that they can do better in their courses and what have you i take them to my office and i talk about the history of education and us that you have been given an opportunity to obtain higher education and i want them to be aware because surprisingly many of them
Are not fully aware of the sacrifices that allowed us to go from trying to read on the plantation late at night and not get caught and possibly suffer significant consequences and i take them all the way through segregation and jim crow and uh brown versus the board of education
And all the way through so my point is we have to constantly bring up our history while we can definitely appreciate where we are do not forget and remind ourselves what has happened whether it needs to be visuals or what have you so i think that’s important and just today and this
Was done respectfully but we are definitely celebrating madame vice president harris’s arrival but before there was her there was and that was stated you know honorable shirley chisholm and whoever else and and people in between so we always want to remember we are celebrating the now but we have to always remember
Where we come from so i just want to add that that should help us to not be complacent we have to teach the ones coming behind us because sometimes that history is not being shared and so they can’t really fully appreciate and embrace what this now really means so thank you
That is so very critical i i am i am the father of two daughters two future zetas yes they are they’ll respect every organization with two future zetas right right but but but but i wanna i wanna say that because this past year has been uh has been challenging
When you start talking about education a lot of times it’s about exposure and part of the exposure and i know chris and i talked about this last year about uh teaching our children about about civic engagement teaching them about how do you get involved in the political process
And first lady and i we we were at several protests this past summer with our girls marching around these issues of black lives matter uh have they you know they made posters and we have these conversations now uh to help get them ready to understand that they have a voice of
Influence now i know each of our organizations or each of your organizations in particular today uh you have uh points of engagement with young people but say but let’s take this thought at least a couple steps further we start talking about uh our young people remembering our history
Tying our history to our future and and really having this voice of empowerment too many people marched in order for us to even do what we’re doing today too many people were at lunch counters go down to the south you mentioned jim crow too many of our children had hoses
Turned on them had dogs sent against them and here we are in 2021 still wrestling uh with the remnants of some of these uh systemic issues that have been uh in place since the founding of this country so say a little bit but let’s take it a step further
Say a little bit more about how we shape this next generation to be to be engagers and and and really to be those those vessels that will help shape the direction of this country i think we have to let them lead i was having a conversation i moderated a power lunch event
Yesterday and it was about intergenerational work and we had two young ladies both around 1920 ones over in scotland has done an indian american has done a lot of great work here another one is a young white lady started an organization called allies for black voices we
They’re doing more some some of them are doing more than we could ever imagine of doing at this age so i think and when we talk about representation then you’re gonna encourage other young people to do the same thing too just like we have amanda gorman up there which a lot people
A lot of people are talking more about poetry and writing for our kids so put them out there and let them do it i think that’s the key well i just want to add that i know that each of our organizations have a youth component whether it is a specific
Identified youth group uh for sigma gamma rho we have our rower club for teen high school age young ladies where we’re grooming them and we impart educational programs to address different topics of interest to them um also for all of us i think it’s going to be very critical that we are continually
Strategically engaging in programs that talk about even at the pre-k level to introduce them to voting you know they can have a little mock election or or anything of that nature i think once we start them early it becomes second nature uh we can’t rely on the school systems to do that
For our children um and i’m not even a parent but i consider all children my children because i’m an educator and whenever i have an opportunity to impart something for them that is beneficial i’m going to do that so i believe that this is going to be the
Key just like we need to start if we haven’t already just you know instilling in them early on about the importance of managing credit and investing and things of the things that we see that people that don’t look like us are already teaching their children at a very early
Age so we need to be strategic and focused in the same way um if i may um i just wanted to add in that like with delta sigma theta we have the betty shabazz delta academy we have the delta gems and we have in body and body focuses on young men
And we have different people come in to talk to them about self-esteem about knowing how to to take to not just accept what society has for you but to go other ways to come through the roof if you have to with the delta with the delta academy that was
That’s for a certain type of young woman but the delta gems are for children who young girls who are at risk because we saw not every particular young lady is going to be one who grew up with two parents in the home or raised by a single parent you have
Some children who have gone to juvenile detention centers who are on that cutting edge of just one wrong turn and it’s over so delta responded to that by having the delta gems and i think all those things are important but i also think it’s incumbent upon
Us to meet young people right where they are and you know sometimes when i teach bible study they’ll say well dr kim we want to talk about this and i’ll say we can talk about whatever you like to talk about just show me how you can connect it to the word of god
And that gets them into studying the the holy writ but it also gets them into self-expression and so i started doing that with young people and when you get them to read aloud you find who has problems reading who has problems with their pronunciation and their enunciation and then you can
Transfer that to what they learned in sunday school to what they do outside of church so that’s just my small way of helping to meet our young people where they are and then not putting them in our box like when you looked at amanda gorman
Her mom is a sore but she was raised by a single parent imagine if we would have just put her in the box of you won’t succeed because there’s not two people in the home well that’s not everyone’s narrative so i think it’s important for us to meet them right where they
Are to celebrate where they are but also do our part to help steer them in a direction where they can realize who they are um i would add to all of those amazing comments by saying listen you know they are doing and i think amanda gorman showed that they are doing
And they are thinking uh so we need to listen and support them uh i had mentioned off the call that uh to kevin uh to pastor miller and his wife that my daughter uh recently received uh admission to howard university and what a lovely thing and we’re so happy and we’re preparing
And we’ve been preparing however she uh showed us a group text or whatever they’re doing snapchat conversations with other young people who applied who got in and yesterday the financial awards came out and the children she’s showing are people dropping off like okay well i’m out
I’m out i can’t do it you know it’s it’s it’s now not in their future their dreams are now cannot be their dreams and i raise that because our bright minds cannot be left behind we need to find a way to support them to get them through what they need we see
Wonderful awards all the time going to institutions we need to make sure that and i know we we have our scholarships we do our part but we need to find ways to support students also who want to carry through these dreams um i know it you know in my chapter delta rho omega
In brooklyn we have um our college tours we all do our college tours we all have our undergraduate chapters where we are uh helping them once they get in um and we have a wonderful organization seeds of fortune that’s helping young women in urban communities navigate the process as well as
Find them funding helping them i think sometimes is you know helping uh shape what are the right experiences for them what will be the right experiences for them and helping to support them to get through those so i think again it’s listening it’s supporting and outside of just this
It’s supporting other organizations that do the work for us because we can’t do everything right but we have to learn to also support with our dollars and we have the naacp we have the urban league we have fair fight we have all of these amazing organizations that need
Us to support them we don’t always have to do the work but we can fund the work right so we need to get more we need to tell more people in our community help us fund the work that you can’t do right now right and you have a part to play we all
Have a part to play and support those who help to hold us up i want to thank you for that insight and all of you who talked about our youth organizations i mentioned our daughters they are part of zeta phi beta’s youth organizations there are meat cats they are mikai
Uh pearlets all three levels of engagement but dr holmes and i’m grateful for your time just just one last question to this group and uh and i’ll send it to dr holmes but i invite all of you to respond this is conversations with a pastor all right this is this is talking about
These moments through this christian lens lens and and dr holmes you you made reference to uh to get it to getting there any way you can talk about even if you have to go through the roof right which is a biblical reference of how how they were trying to get somebody to
Uh to the into the presence of christ so my question really to this group is how do we move forward from here and and kim you are the one person among this particular group uh in terms of the ladies who was ordained in clergy who is a preacher
But so i’ll be curious just to hear your response in the response to this entire group how does faith empower what we do felicia you mentioned about history right much of the organizing that took place particularly during the civil rights movement took place in our churches uh kristen and anita you talked about
Uh the impact of the vote and how many people marched so that they would be the right of the right to vote and to use that vote to use that vote certainly to help shape politics it grieves my spirit when i when i have to convince people who are
In a position to vote uh that they say well i’m not gonna vote because i don’t like the candidates i don’t think that there’s anything that we can do agrees my spirit because there was too many people that made sacrifices all that being said can we
Share a little bit and help us think a little bit through this lens of faith and impact on our future thank you so much dr miller um i was just talking to somebody on my way down here this morning i was talking about my dad my dad and mom
They only um they graduated from high school and that was it and you know my dad and mom made so many sacrifices for me to go to school and finish college he didn’t think that we should stay on campus because my brother went to the college of eastern utah before me
And he just did what we do when we go to college he squandered the money he didn’t finish so he came home and so when it was my turn to go i wanted to stay on campus and my dad said i didn’t i don’t see the purpose in that
So i commuted back and forth to montclair state from jersey city and every day my dad drove me my mom would pick me up if i caught the train they met me at newark penn station because they had enough belief in me that i would be somebody and that was before
I knew anything about delta sigma theta anything about um my spiritual journey i learned through my parents who didn’t have the college degrees but they had faith and they pushed me and you know um i just want to say on april 28th of 1979 our founders of delta they erected a
Sculpture over there at howard university and it’s called fortitude and the sculpture it shows a um it depicts a woman and it’s cut on a thin piece of metal and she wears a sleeveless dress high heels and has short straight hair and the sculpture is supposed to symbolize
Strength and courage and hope and wisdom and beauty and femininity as depicted by our founders and when i think about those words those they all speak to it’s just not a delta thing when you see that fortitude sculpture that can apply to all of us it can apply to
You know men and women and it also can apply biblically because the word of god says for i know the plans i have for you so god has plans for us and my faith was strengthened during this pandemic during the elections because when i saw michelle obama
Do the fist things and she pointed at kamala harris and she did like this it made me see that this transcends sororities and all of that my my facebook post says my vp looks like me and i got kamala harry’s picture there and i got my picture side by side
And i have 20 because we have to have enough faith and support in each other whether you be male or female no matter what sorority you’re in but just faith in us as a people that whatever you do when you shine i shine and whatever way i can help you i’m
Going to help you because you’re my sister because the world commands us to do so so my faith was strengthened when i saw that when i saw president barack obama do the fist pump to vice president kamala harris and they connected together it reminded me in the bible
When mary and elizabeth when they met how the child leaped in the womb because there was a connectivity and i just want us to have that energy and that connectivity as people of god called to do service and you know amanda said that um
Be brave to see it and to be it we have to be brave to see ourselves in these policy decisions and to see ourselves at the table where decisions are being made and to see ourselves lifting as we climb and reaching back from where we came from
And pulling up our sisters and brothers because that’s biblical for us to encourage one another in the faith so my faith was strengthened when i saw what i saw when i heard what i heard and why i’m encouraged to do what i do so i would like to just add my sister
Um i am a pastor’s child yeah typical pk um so brought up in the word know it may not always practice it but do definitely know it but what i want to share with all of you is the god that we serve is not about chaos and confusion so
Definitely when i saw that at the very outstart and even before the last person got into the office i said this is not of god god is not about chaos and confusion and so i immediately on my own set about saying i’m gonna have to pray about this situation
And my prayer was specific and strategic and i think people forget that you know when you pray and you are in one with the creator there are also other spirits that are listening to your prayer so you need to be specific about what it is that you
Are praying for because the forces that are not of god will send things to you or present situations that give the veneer of being godly but it’s truly not so when i saw this situation with our previous person in charge and that’s how i’m going to identify them
I began to seriously pray about removal of this person and this situation and spoke to others who were also engaged in prayer in that same vein and so i believe in prayer but i also know that and i know that prayer is powerful but i’ve had to learn through my many years that
My prayers have to be very strategic and specific because when we are praying to god there are other forces that hear those prayers too and we have to be very careful about what we are what we are stating in our prayers and be vigilant and watchful because god will reveal
Himself to you if you have that relationship with him he reveals to you what is going to be the chosen path so i already knew that this was going to be a one-term person i believed it i knew it i felt it and i was prayerful and i aligned myself with other
Prayerful like-minded folks as well so i just wanted to add that thank you thank you well as a deaconess at cornerstone baptist church in brooklyn new york where you’ve got to let them know uh our past our senior pastor is lawrence e aker uh you know our pastor
Always leaves us with love right and and being true also to who i am i always pray for love in the heart and that we act with love as well uh and uh and as i said being true to who i am is bringing that love into our homes bringing that love
Into our communities and if we truly love that we will act in god’s accordance and do god’s work i would just add that you know i think about zeta and i think about our founding in our beginnings all of our um founders were members of something called the praying break band
So they were teased uh for you know praying so much or and i i just think about again how the faith in god not only for our founders but throughout history and throughout all of our histories has really led us to where we are today and i think that like i talked about
That journey before if we really want to succeed if we really want to make it to that quote-unquote promised land we have got to continue to have the faith in god because that’s what god has gotten us to where we are today so i’ll just add that you know as we
Think about next steps whether it’s advocacy whether it’s getting ourselves a seat at the table just have faith in our abilities and in god well i want to thank all of our guests thank you for for that insight thank you for your time today uh coming together
At this point i am so extremely extremely grateful uh for this connection so i want to thank the reverend dr kimberly holmes i want to thank dr felicia blakeney i want to thank mrs onita coward mayors i want to thank miss christa jones for the sacrifice of your time today
If if you will allow normally i would offer the prayer but i but i’m going to ask our first lady uh if she would offer the prayer for this group and then following that we’re going to share your information with our guests so they can see that
And then and then we will be done and this will be wrapped up but i want to thank you for just for your for your selflessness today uh to be able to share so much of who you are and what god is doing in you and
Through yours my hope to have each of you back where i could just have the one-on-one conversation but i just thought this conversation today considering the times was just going to be critical for so many different issues that are going on uh so first lady if you would if you
Would offer a prayer that would be outstanding yes pastor and i also just want to add my voice and just say thank you to each of you for being with us today what a rich conversation um you all part took in and we are grateful for your presence today thank you
Let us go before the throne gracious god our father we thank you and we bless you lord god for this day that you allowed us to take part in we thank you lord god for this courageous conversation for this informative if for this insightful conversation that you’ve allowed to take place this
Morning god we thank you for the insight that you gave to the founders of all of these formative organizations we thank you lord god for their vision and we thank you god for every woman that has come through the ranks of each of these organizations as has already been
Said we wear different colors we have different names but we are standing on the same foundation the foundation of being of service to those in need so god thank you for the calling that you have placed on each of our lives to do a specific work in our communities throughout this
Country and abroad god we thank you for this election we thank you lord god for the inauguration of joseph r biden and kamala harris and we are so very grateful that you have allowed our country to see a woman of color take a national office what a
Wonderful example of how your spirit can move of how you can shift the atmosphere lord god and also a wonderful example of how when we come together it is clear that we are stronger when we work in unison so lord god we ask that you will bless every organization represented here
Bless every chapter that is represented here and lord god we pray that our work will go forth with power with authority that people will see you working through us that we will unite as women as women of color and as women most importantly of god that will take the lead in our
Communities and that will show what we can do when we come together thank you god for this platform thank you for our pastor and for carter community amy church and lord god we just ask that you will continue to use us to do your perfect will bless us to be a
Blessing to others to seniors to young people to all those who are disenfranchised lord god use us to do your perfect will and it is in your son jesus’s name that we pray and we give thanks amen amen amen and amen again thank you again so
Very much for being here with me today we’re just going to share your information uh with those folks who are watching just so they want to get in touch with you learn more about about what you are doing they are able to do that so uh we’re going to share our screen
At this time and then we will be all set so again our guest today uh wait a second actually pull that down please so our guest today again was uh miss anita cowan mayors from alpha kappa alpha reverend dr kimberly holmes from delta sigma theta miss christa jones from zeta phi beta
Sorority and dr felicia blakely from sigma gamma rho let me if i could i just want to make sure you have their contact information working in reverse uh we have dr felicia blakeney you see the information there for sigma gamma rho sorority incorporated and you can go to their website her
Email contact information is drdrfdblakeme gmail.com in case you want to reach her specifically also you can see the information there far sora krista jones founder of vote lead impact uh you can visit her on her web uh her web platforms kristajones.com and voipvoteleadimpact.com and you also see the information there
If you want to learn more about zeta phi beta sorority and then the reverend dr kimberly holmes esquire the assistant commissioner for the department of community affairs you can reach her at kimberly k holmes gmail.com and also you see information there for delta sigma theta sorority
Uh if you want to find out information about that sorority and certainly for mrs o’neill coward mayors the vice president of miram group founder of shield the vote you can reach her at oc mayors at miram group.com and also you see information there for alpha kappa alpha sorority incorporated so again
Our information for uh mrs coward mayor’s information for reverend dr kimberly holmes esquire information for uh miss krista jones to find out more about her organization and the great work she’s doing and then also to reach dr felicia blakeney as well all that information is there
As well as these are going to date as well as information about each organization so i want to thank each of our guests today for the sorority edition uh once again you see all this information regarding each of their organizations so we invite you to learn more about this great work
That each of our organizations are doing all of them are are a hundred years old with the exception of sigma gamma rho and they are at age 99 which means we’ve been around for a long time doing great work so i thank god for each and every one of them
Next week it is our hope to have with us miss crystal walthall she is the executive director of faith in new york and she will start to get us ready around some of these issues that miss unita coward mayors was talking about as it relates to the voting structures that are happening
Here in new york city as we get ready for what will be a pivotal critical election for those who want to get in touch with us you can certainly reach us on this platform as many institutions are doing in places of worship our worship service is 11am right here on this facebook platform
So we invite you to join us so you can reach us at cartercommunityame at gmail.com or call us at 718-297-2371 so again beloved i give god praise for you you you and you and i want to thank you for being here with us today thank you for spending this critical
Time with us to get this information let people in our community know about our organizations and the great work that they’re doing fund our organizations you heard our panelists talk about that be in prayer about our future you heard our panelists talk about that be engaged with issues of politics politics and
Policy formation you heard our panelists talk about that as well and do what we can to help educate our future bridging the history of our past with the bright future that we have in front of us so i want to thank you i praise god for
You beloved and i give god praise thank you again for joining us this week on conversations with a pastor foreign
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