The National Association of Black County Officials (NABCO) held its 2024 Leadership Summit and Retreat in downtown Miami last weekend, bringing a slew of prominent out-of-towners to the Magic City.
The three-day event featured special guests such as Rep. Frederica Wilson, journalist Roland Martin, Harris County Commissioner Rodney Ellis and Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis.
On April 26, the association and its guests gathered in the evening at The Urban in Overtown to keep both the party and the conversations going. Through a panel moderated by Cook County Commissioner Stanley Moore, NABCO’s vice president, Martin and Ellis discussed a series of topics, focusing on the importance of the upcoming November election.
VOTING
“The first thing that we have to do is, we have to understand and recognize what our power is,” said Martin. “Part of the problem in Florida and Louisiana and in places is that Black folks are not voting in numbers.”
Using the 2016 gubernatorial election as an example, Martin noted how Republican candidate Gov. Ron DeSantis beat out former Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum, a Black Democrat, by no more than 33,000 votes. He said the number of Black people who did not vote in that election far exceeded that amount by approximately 200,000.
“The elections today are won by the margins, and trust me, that four, six, ten thousand will be the difference between winning and losing,” Martin said.” “That’s what our focus has to be: power.”
In the 2016 election, the top voting counties were all red counties. Broward and Miami-Dade counties were the 58th and 60th highest voting counties, respectively, out of 67 counties in the state.
“I don’t care how angry, how mad you are,” said Ellis, who represents the most populous county in Texas. “There are consequences to elections, and if you know somebody who doesn’t vote, you ought to stop talking to them. I don’t give a damn what they’re mad about. Get over it. There’s too much at stake.”
Martin also pointed out how party politics often divert from issues that are important to the voting public in order to gain power. He suggested that the Republican party has long been adapting its strategy to appeal to the Black population and acquire some of its vote, particularly when it comes to immigration.
“You also have to understand what someone is trying to get you to do,” he said. “It was a ploy by Republican governors to shift the conversation of immigration, and it was also a racial ploy … because what do you then hear? ‘Oh, y’all finding these moneys for them but you can’t find money for us.’”
Ellis and Martin both alluded to the need for a major national policy on immigration reform. A bipartisan team of senators negotiated such a bill recently, but Republican support quickly collapsed once it was drafted. Many believe it was former President Donald Trump’s objections that caused the dwindled support.
“We can’t allow ourselves to get played by a Republican’s racial politics,” said Martin.
For those who don’t vote, said Martin, there is often a lack of awareness as to how public policy has an effect on the issues most important to them. In the case of criminal justice reform, a county’s district attorney has a direct impact.
The territory District Attorney Fani Willis covers encompasses most of Atlanta. She shared with the audience how she functions as a prosecutor in a city with gang activity.
Future Generations
“I want to save every child I can from the level of violence that gangs were doing in our community,” said Willis. “We were literally in gang wars where the only people being killed were young African American men basically between the ages of 15 and 28. We cannot afford to lose a generation of our young men.”
Willis noted the need for a balanced approach, disciplining the most violent criminals while correcting the path of those who are merely influenced by them. That includes treating everyone in every case file with respect, she said, from the defendant and victim to the witness and surrounding community.
Part of the battle, then, becomes making sure that the future generation does not end up in a case file to begin with. Hence the necessity for mentorship, which Willis said she received lots of at Howard University, a prestigious historically Black research university in Washington, D.C.
Though she commends HBCUs for being skilled at pouring into their students, Willis highlighted the responsibility Black professionals and public officials must assume at the individual level to teach and guide those in their immediate vicinity.
“You should not be in this position and not have two or three people that you’re mentoring,” she said to the NABCO audience. “We have a real responsibility as professionals to make sure that we are pouring into the next generation.”
Plus, for women specifically, she had one additional message: “The first thing I would tell women is to be authentic, to be yourself, not try to be the man … you do not have to lessen your shine.”
NABCO Weekend
The leadership summit featured additional home-grown guests, including Miami-Dade County Commissioner Kionne McGhee, who is the president of NABCO; Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava; Miami-Dade Economic Advocacy Trust Executive Director Bill Diggs; and North Miami Councilmember Mary Estimé-Irvin.
Other guests were honored with achievement awards, including former NBA player turned philanthropist Alonzo Mourning; Connie W. Kinnard, senior vice president of multicultural tourism and development at the Greater Miami Convention and Visitors Bureau; Clarence D. Brown, division director for community development at Miami-Dade’s housing department; and more.
The event concluded with a celebration honoring Black trailblazers and all Black county officials in attendance.
“Thank you so much for who you all are, thank you for the legacies you are leaving, and thank you so much for the sacrifices you have made,” said journalist Jeff Johnson. “Move forward in power, but most importantly let’s move forward in love.”
