When Barron Banks was 18, federal marshals had to accompany him to the polling precinct in Tchula, Miss., so he could vote without getting harassed or beaten. Nearly five decades later, Banks says his position as Jackson's Ward 6 election commissioner could not have happened without the Civil Rights Movement.
I wasn't able to vote when I was 18 without federal marshals being there, and now, for the last eight years, I have been an election commissioner," he says. "... Now I'm over several precincts to make sure the votes are dealt with."
Banks, 63, who is also the national chaplain for Jackson State Alumni Association, will reflect on the progression of the Civil Rights Movement as the moderator of "Sunday Morning Segregation: How Much Has Changed Since the Days of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.?" Panelists include Bishop Ronnie Crudup, senior pastor at New Horizon Church International; Rev. Carolyn Tyler Guidry of A.M.E. Church; Rev. Duncan Gray II, Episcopal Diocese of Mississippi; and Rev. Stan Buckley, senior pastor of First Baptist Church in Jackson. The panel discussion is part of the Medger Evers/Ella Baker Civil Rights Lecture Series sponsored by the Fannie Lou Hamer National Institute on Citizenship and Democracy, Jackson State University and the Margaret Walker Alexander National Research Center.
"We have made a lot of change and strides, but I still think we still have a way to go," Banks says. "I think this will be good timing to bring this up, especially with our president being an African American and what he is going through right now. ... (Dr. Martin Luther King) said we had to be each other's brothers and sisters. He was fighting for that. Dr. King wasn't just fighting for rights for just blacks, he was fighting for rights of the universe, for people."
In 1964, Banks worked as a student campaign worker for state Rep. Robert Clark, who was as the state's first African American elected to the Legislature since the Reconstruction era. Banks received his bachelor's degree from JSU in social-science education and, in 1973, left Mississippi to attend the University of Pittsburgh where he received his master's of divinity. During his time in Pittsburgh, he pushed for more African American professors on campus. In addition to working as chaplain, Banks serves on the city's planning board, and is the pastor of New Hope Baptist Church in Meridian.
"Sunday Morning Segregation" is Tuesday, Nov. 9, at Central United Methodist Church (500 N. Farish St.) at 6:30 p.m. For more information, call 601-979-1563.
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