By Shauna Stuart | The Birmingham Times

In May, Bishop Julius McAllister, Jr. knew he had to join the fight against redistricting in Alabama.

McAllister is the 144th Bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church in Alabama where he  serves as the Presiding Prelate of the Ninth Episcopal District, leading parishioners across 250 churches in the state. McAllister is a South Carolina native, and one of his political inspirations is educator and civil rights activist Rep. James Clyburn, South Carolina’s only Black Democratic Congressman and one of the longest serving members of the U.S. House of Representatives. In South Carolina, McAllister says he saw the work Clyburn was doing in the community and his leadership within his congressional delegation.

A fourth-generation minister, McAllister says religious leaders should be involved in the democratic process.

“I really believe as a faith leader, that democracy functions best when maps are fair. And communities remain intact when voters choose their elected officials, rather than elected officials choosing their voters,” said McAllister.  “This is not a Democratic issue or a Republican issue. It is an American issue. It is a constitutional issue, and for people of faith, it’s a justice issue.”

McAllister closely monitored the rapid timeline of Republican-led states’ efforts to redraw voting district lines immediately after the Louisiana vs Callis decision on April 29.

So, when Gov. Kay Ivey called a special legislative session to authorize plans that would eliminate the state’s only two Democratic majority legislative seats, McAllister knew he had to make the trip to Montgomery to convene with fellow voting rights activists.

The week of the session, on the grounds of the state capitol, McAllister attended press conferences where politicians and activists from around the state, including Rep. Terri Sewell, gave passionate speeches condemning the dismantling of voting rights protections and urged concerned crowds to stay involved in the political process. During the rallies, he saw attendees holding signs raised high with phrases saying, “Jim Crow Doesn’t Live Here” and “We’re Not Going Back to the 60s.”

The displays of unity inspired McAllister to start creating a plan of action to motivate more clergy to join the battle.

“When we see this rapid succession of folk trying to dismantle democracy, the Black church cannot be guilty of moving at a snail’s pace when the enemy is moving at lightning speed,” said McAllister.  “We have to gird up our loins, and we have to go to work.”

Read more:  65 Years Later, the Freedom Riders Are Ready for Another Battle: ‘This Movement Has to be Reopened’

Bishop Julius McAllister Jr. gathers with a group of fellow faith leaders in Selma on May 16 during the All Roads Lead to the South. (Provided, Bishop Julius Mcallister Jr.)

An ecumenical movement

At the Capitol, he spoke to Rep. Sewell about an idea. Drawing on the historic role Black churches played during the voting rights movement of the 1960s, McAllister wanted to organize a large press conference at one of the AME churches near the state capitol where faith leaders, politicians, activists, and community members could gather to discuss concerns about redistricting. He and Sewell talked about bringing together clergy people, state legislators, and community members from different jurisdictions.

“We talked about making this an ecumenical movement. And then, after having that type of ministry experience in the church, then we would go to the state capitol and walk from the church to the state capitol and then begin to expound to a larger audience,” said McAllister.

Sewell and other leaders had similar ideas. McAllister says Sewell started putting “feet to the vision” and shared his concept with other stakeholders and partners who also wanted to organize a mass political convening.

“And in my wildest dreams, I never thought that we would be able to move forward in such a high-powered way,” said McAllister.

McAllister soon heard talk of “All Roads Lead to the South,” a campaign for thousands of people to return to Selma and Montgomery in the footsteps of the historic voting rights movement as a clarion call to protest efforts to redraw redistricting maps. The effort would call for attendees to gather for a mass meeting in the morning, march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, and then rally in Montgomery at the Alabama State House.

As the idea for “All Roads Lead to the South” continued to evolve, McAllister and his wife, Deana — the ninth district’s leadership supervisor, wanted to ensure other faith leaders would heed the call to get involved and spread the word about the campaign. So they helped to organize a massive virtual town hall, sponsored by the Ninth Episcopal District of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. They extended invitations to leaders of the AME Church, the CME church, and the AME Zion Church. And they sent out calls to historically Black fraternities and sororities and to politicians, including U.S. representatives Terri Sewell, Shomari Figures, and James Clyburn, as well as Alabama State representative Anthony Daniels from Huntsville.

Days later, on May 16, the All Roads Lead to the South campaign started with a mass meeting at the historic Tabernacle Baptist Church, the site of the first mass meeting of the Selma voting rights movement in 1963. That morning, Bishop McAllister stood among more than 30 faith leaders from around the country to pray for the nation and decry efforts to dismantle the voting rights protections activists fought and died for more than 60 years ago.

READ MORE: ‘History Started Here’: A New Voting Rights Movement Rises in Selma and Montgomery

After the mass meeting, as attendees left the church in groups to march to the Edmund Pettus Bridge and pay homage to the non-violent activists beaten by Alabama State Troopers during the Bloody Sunday march of 1965, McAllister led an assembly of clergy members.

Reflecting on that morning, McAllister says he was proud to stand in the footsteps of ministers who heeded the call to action during the 1960s voting rights movement in Selma. He recalls the story of I.H. Bonner, the presiding Bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church in Alabama.

During the 1960s, Black churches across the state, including Selma, hosted mass meetings to help organize and educate Black citizens about securing the right to vote. In 1964, Gov. George Wallace ordered Alabama courts to issue an injunction to prohibit meetings in Black churches. Churches that disobeyed the order would risk losing their nonprofit status. Rev. P.H. Lewis, pastor of Brown Chapel AME Church and Bishop Bonner defied the injunction.

“Bonner said he would not allow anyone to tell him what to do with his church,” said McAllister. “And he told Brown Chapel to remain open and allow Martin Luther King Jr. Andrew Young, Ralph Abernathy, John Lewis, all of the stalwarts from the Civil Rights Movement and everyday people to meet.”

Brown Chapel would ultimately become the site of mass meetings leading up to the 1965 marches from Selma to Montgomery.   This history is one of the reasons why McAllister calls Selma, Montgomery, and Birmingham sacred.

“I really believe that those places are holy ground,” said McAllister. “Because men and women risked everything so future generations could have a voice.”

Bishop Julius McAllister Jr. says the role of faith leaders is to continue to engage society. (Amarr Croskey, For The Birmingham Times)

The role of the Black church: The guardian of democracy

McAllister moved from Tallahassee, where he served as the senior minister of Bethel African Methodist Episcopal church, to Birmingham in August 2024. He says he is honored to serve his first assignment as bishop in such a sacred historic district.

“To hear (more) about the major civil rights movement in cities and places like Selma and Montgomery, Birmingham, and Mobile, it gave me a clear sense of what our ancestors had to go through.”

Since arriving in Alabama, McAllister and his family have attended historic commemorations and met living witnesses to history.

Last year, McAllister gave remarks at the unveiling of the Statue of Rosa Parks on the grounds of the Alabama State Capitol. It was a full circle moment for McAllister. He met Rosa Parks in 1995 as a young cleric at an annual conference in Detroit.

When McAllister moved to the district, he also met Joyce Parrish O’Neal. O’Neal, a longtime member of Brown Chapel AME who currently serves as the church’s historian. As a teenager, O’Neal was active in the voting rights movement in Selma and walked on the final leg of the Selma to Montgomery marches with her mother and sister.

“And the stories that she tells along with her sister, it continues to pierce the canyons of your soul to understand the tremendous amount of sacrifice and commitment they made at a very, very young age,” said McAllister. “But they did not allow that to stay on that bridge. They took it with them and became civil rights leaders in their own right. And we praised God and received an inordinate amount of strength from the stories they share with us even today.”

Fast forward to more than 60 years after the voting rights movement of the 1960s, McAllister says activists joining the fight against redistricting are coming to complete unfinished business.  And to McAllister, the role of the Black church is to be the guardian of democracy.

In early June, the Supreme Court ruled to allow Alabama to use a congressional map favoring Republicans in this year’s upcoming elections. The move blocks a lower court ruling that the redistricting plan intentionally discriminates against Black people, reports the Associated Press.

Now, McAllister says the role of faith leaders is to continue to engage society.

“The role of the Black church, as you know, has never been confined to the four walls of the sanctuary. The same church that preached salvation on Sunday, organized voter registration drives all during the week,” said McAllister. “I think when it comes to redistricting and gerrymandering, I think that faith leaders and the Black church have a responsibility to educate, to mobilize, and to advocate. And I think the last piece would be what we do best — inspire.”

Bishop Julius McAllister is the 144th Bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church in Alabama. (Amarr Croskey, For The Birmingham Times)