Herb Wesson takes early lead in District 10 election

March 8, 2011 By 1 Comment


Music, food, and yellow and black balloons made for a high-spirited evening at the Herb Wesson reelection headquarters in District 10.

The incumbent won outright in his sprawling and diverse district, avoiding a run-off election at a later time.

Wesson said that his first priority after being reelected would be addressing the budget concerns of the city. He acknowledged that the statewide budgets cuts were felt by everyone, but especially in places like District 10 where funds are needed to help “redevelop blighted communities.”

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Kamala Harris files suit in scam that targeted black Southern California churches

February 28, 2011 By 1 Comment


Attorney General Kamala Harris filed a lawsuit in the Los Angeles Superior Court Monday, February 28, in the hopes of helping a group of California churches recoup money that was lost in an alleged scam.  image

More than 30 black churches in Southern California leased computer kiosks from Television Broadcasting Online Ltd., Urban Interfaith Network, Willie Perkins, Michael Morris, Wayne Wilson, Tanya Wilson, Balboa Capital Corp. and United Leasing Associates of America Ltd.

The kiosks were supposed to enhance the church experience for members of the congregations, but the equipment was unreliable and the churches paid high monthly fees.

“This was a cruel and hypocritical scheme,’’ said Harris.  “The perpetrators preyed on institutions of faith. Let this be a lesson to others who may look to defraud our community organizations: You will be caught and you will be held accountable.’‘

Of the 33 churches persuaded to sign leases, 24 of them are located in Los Angeles County. 

Harris’s lawsuit seeks compensation and civil penalties of more than $800,000. 

Read the official complaint here. 

Photo credit: Kaitlin Parker

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Tenants in District 10 want a break from rising rents

February 26, 2011 By 1 Comment


On the morning of the most romantic holiday of the year, Los Angeles City Councilman Herb Wesson had a “Valentine” hand-delivered to his District 10 campaign office, but the message on the card was anything but loving. 



Members of the LA Right to Housing Collective gathered outside Wesson’s office, demanding changes in the city’s rent-control law. A law that would temporarily freeze rent increases failed to pass last year. While rents are rising, many wages are not, and some tenants say they are seeing more and more families displaced from their neighborhoods.


Wesson was not present in the office when the group walked inside and delivered their card, which had a picture of a broken heart. A staff member in the office said she did not know when Wesson would be back or what his response would be to the group’s requests.

Interpreter services provided by Davin Corona, co-director of Comunidad Presente.

More stories on housing in South Los Angeles:

Protestors give Herb Wesson a hand-delivered Valentine
Historic South Los Angeles neighborhood breaks ground on new housing project
City Planning postpones ruling on luxury apartment complex

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Arlon Watson given long sentence for murder of Compton teenager

February 16, 2011 By 10 Comments


Problems and solutions

Judge Eleanor J. Hunter was not happy with Arlon Watson’s behavior in court. She was fed up with his giggling, irreverence, and open disdain for the prosecution. But before she spoke directly to the convicted murderer, she said a few words about his family. “I know your family has been here throughout this process,” she said. “And they’ve been kind and courteous. Your people have been great in this court. But looking at you, Mr. Watson, I can see that in this instance, the apple did indeed fall very far from the tree.”

After over three weeks of trial and jury deliberation, Judge Hunter sentenced 22-year-old Compton resident Arlon Watson to 80 years to life in prison for the fatal shooting of high school student Dannie Farber, Jr.

Earlier in the week, a jury found Watson guilty of first-degree murder. In contrast to the dress shirts and slacks he wore during the trial, Watson appeared before the judge on Wednesday in a blue LA County Jail jumpsuit. He declined to make a public statement.

Two members of Farber’s family took the opportunity to stand up and share what was on their hearts. Kenneth McGee, who helped raise Farber from early on, said justice would be served if the judge gave Watson “whatever he’s got coming to him.” McGee choked back tears and excused his language as he described Farber as “one hell of a good athlete.” He remembered the shock of going from helping to plan a high school prom to suddenly planning a funeral. As he spoke, Farber’s mother, Danielle Lewis, crossed her arms on the back of the seat in front of her and put her head in the crook of her elbow.
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Farber’s aunt, Rachel Malveaux, struggled to make it through her first sentence, her voice cracking as soon as she began to speak. A clerk brought her a box of tissues. “Parents are supposed to go before you,” she said, “but these days it seems like children are going before their parents.”

Watson appeared unaffected by the words of Farber’s family. He smiled eerily and exchanged seemingly light-hearted words with his attorney as McGee and Malveaux spoke.

After the family’s statements, Deputy District Attorney Joe Porras said he had submitted a recommendation for sentencing to the judge, hoping she would take into consideration a prior conviction for robbery and gang and gun allegations that were also found to be true.

Porras also offered an emotional reaction at the end of the trial. “I’ve worked on around 30 murder trials, and this is the only one where the murder was actually captured on video,” Porras said, referring to a security tape from the restaurant where Farber was eating when he was shot. “Those 40 seconds of video are going to be with me long after retirement.”

Defense attorney Tracy Grayson had nothing to say on behalf of Watson, but did object to Porras’ statements, saying they were part of an overly emotional and rehearsed act put on for the news camera in the courtroom.

Judge Hunter overruled his objection.

Before officially issuing the sentence, the judge spoke pointedly to Watson.

“You can smile and giggle all you want, but you’re a murderer,” she said. “You can go back to your gang people and high five them, but one day my words will come back and haunt you.”

“It’s not just that you took a life. It’s the life you took,” Hunter continued. “People can be a part of the problem or a part of the solution. Dannie Farber was part of the solution and you are part of the problem.”

Hunter gave Watson the maximum sentence, 80 years to life, for the combination of his murder, gang, gun, and robbery charges. She said the possibility for parole was unlikely.

Hunter concluded: “We saw pure evil in this court, and is you, Arlon Watson.”

A family still in mourning

Listen to audio of Kennth McGee reacting to the sentencing of Arlon Watson.

For Farber’s family members, who have been in court for every day of the trial, the morning of the sentencing felt like the emotional culmination of the long search for Farber’s murderer.

Sitting outside the courtroom, Farber’s mother reflected on the guilty verdict and sentencing.

“I’m just glad it’s over, just happy that justice was served,” she said. “It won’t bring Dannie back, but I’m glad Watson’s off the street, somewhere where he won’t be able to hurt another family like he hurt our family.”

Michelle Malveaux, Farber’s grandmother agreed. “I’m happy for the verdict. I’m ready to get my party on.”

Around 25 friends and family members of Farber’s attended the hearing, and Malveaux seemed to be the cheerleader of the bunch, greeting everyone as they gathered. She wore a pin with a picture of Farber, but wished she could have made T-shirts. “We make T-shirts to celebrate everything related to Dannie,” she explained. “Dannie’s birthday, holidays, everything, we do a T-shirt. I’ve got a sign in my front yard with his picture on it. After today, I’m getting another sign that says ‘justice is served.’”

Once she sat down, her energy momentarily waned. Today she felt a particular kind of sadness, similar to how she felt the day she first learned Farber had been killed. “It’s not my body that’s tired,” she said, “It’s my brain.”

McGee shared a similar sentiment. “Emotions are running high today,” he said.

He tipped his head back, and spoke about Dannie. “Whatever he set his mind out to do, he achieved. He had this football shirt that said ‘Finish’ on it, so whenever I’m struggling, I think about that. I’m going to finish everything I start, including coming to every single day of this trial.

“The worst part now is watching your son’s mother cry every night and morning and not being able to fix it. I can fix a lot of things, but not a broken heart.”

Beyond wreaking emotional havoc, the trial has also taken a physical toll on McGee, who switched his shift at Metro to work at night. Every morning for almost the past month, McGee would come to court straight off his work shift, go home, “sleep for an hour or two” in the afternoon and return to his night shift at Metro that evening.

McGee said Watson was a coward. “People say it’s a loss on both sides. I don’t feel that way. His family can still go see him in prison, but I’ve got to go to a cemetery if I want to see my son.”

“Today I feel satisfaction, but not closure,” he said. “I still live with the pain every day.”

Other stories on the Arlon Watson Trial:
Compton Court hears closing arguments in Arlon Watson Trial

Watson trial offers glimpse inside deadly deep-rooted gang rivalries

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Protestors give Herb Wesson a hand-delivered Valentine

February 14, 2011 By 2 Comments


Los Angeles City Councilman Herb Wesson had a “Valentine” hand-delivered to his District 10 campaign office this morning, but the message on the card was anything but loving.

Chanting “Housing is a human right” in English and Spanish, members of the LA Right to Housing Collective gathered outside Wesson’s office, demanding changes in the city’s rent-control law. Tenants want to see their rents stabilized and stop a 2 percent increase in utility fees.

Wesson was not present in the office when the group walked inside and delivered their card, which had a picture of a broken heart. A staff member in the office said she did not know when Wesson would be back or what his response would be to the group’s requests.

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Compton court hears closing arguments in Arlon Watson Trial

February 3, 2011 By 3 Comments


On the final day of arguments in the trial of Arlon Watson, defense attorney Tracy Grayson asked a witness about the height of the man she saw running away from a fast food restaurant in Compton on the night of May 24, 2009.

“I know he wasn’t a midget,” Debra Lindsey testified from the witness stand. She couldn’t remember exactly how tall he was–only that he was taller than her own five-foot-two-inch frame.
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In the trial of the accused murderer of Dannie Farber, a high school student fatally shot at a Louisiana Fried Chicken on the 1900 block of West Rosecrans Avenue, the prosecution believes the man

Lindsey saw that night to be Watson, a 22-year-old Compton resident and suspected gang member.

The discrepancy over heights reported by witnesses to Farber’s shooting played heavily into the closing arguments of Watson’s defense.

The prosecution argued that it wasn’t necessary to quibble over such details in reports by traumatized witnesses when there was such compelling evidence that pointed to Watson as the shooter.

Summing up the major points presented in the two-week-long trial, Deputy District Attorney Joe Porras brought up several phone calls made by Watson from jail once he was arrested last year in which he expressed a willingness to “strike a deal” about a possible prison term.

Porras also reminded the jury of testimony from people like Ashley Webb, who last week said that Watson had told her directly that he shot Farber. He emphasized the stigma of snitching in the gang community and how hard it was to get witnesses to come forward. Failing to show up in court after being subpoenaed, Webb was arrested at her college basketball practice and brought to testify.

“That message that you hear starting in kindergarten—‘Don’t tattletale’—has taken a bastardized turn in snitching. There’s the feeling of ‘you could be next,’” Porras said. “One would hope that people would be lining up to testify, but that’s not the reality. A college girl playing basketball should not have to be arrested to do the right thing.”

Liars, and felons and thieves, oh my.

Grayson began his final statement to the jury by saying, “Arlon Watson did not shoot Dannie Farber.”

He went on to call the case against Watson a “sloppy, incompetent mess, ” describing the prosecution’s case as one “built on sand that has now crumbled.”

Returning to the discrepancies in the reports of the height of the shooter, Grayson assured the jury that this was not a minor detail, pointing to Watson and saying, “Someone’s life is at stake, he’s looking at life.”

The statement evoked swift admonishment from Judge Eleanor Hunter, who said that Grayson should know better than to bring up potential sentencing of the defendant, since such talk could affect a jury’s decision.

Unshaken, Grayson went back to claiming a lack of evidence and describing the people brought by the prosecution to testify as a “band of liars, felons and thieves, oh my.” He insisted they were all being paid and offered rewards for their witness services.

Farber’s girlfriend was with him when he was shot, and Grayson brought up differences between the defendant and the description of the shooter she gave to detectives. Grayson said Watson had a tattoo on his neck and a goatee, but the girlfriend described a clean-shaven man with no tattoo.

Grayson continued to question the credibility of witnesses, making frequent references to a multi-page checklist he kept at a podium. He also claimed phrases from Watson’s calls from jail were taken out of context by people who didn’t know Compton slang. He also wondered aloud why the prosecution didn’t call more witnesses to corroborate Webb’s story and accused Webb of lying, saying she was “smart enough to keep her story simple.”

When addressing the fact that Watson tried to run away when arrested by police, Grayson said, “Call me crazy, but black men from the hood don’t often trust police.”

At the end of his hour-long final argument, Grayson said to the jury, “Mr. Porras failed miserably in convincing you Watson is guilty.” He raised his voice slightly and concluded, “There is tons of reasonable doubt in this case.”

Verdict expected soon

In the prosecution’s final statement to the jury, Porras responded to Grayson, shaking his head and musing, “Listening to that, I have to wonder, were we watching the same trial?”

Porras said witnesses were not paid off and that Grayson’s lengthy final argument was “just odd” and “delusional.” Again citing the difficulty of finding witnesses for fear of being labeled a snitch, Porras reminded the jury of Randy Wells, who had to be relocated outside of his Compton neighborhood, believing his safety to be at risk after testifying.

The neck tattoo Grayson mentioned is actually behind Watson’s ear, Porras said. He also said the slang phrase from the jail calls Grayson called into question, “off the hook,” did not actually appear in the transcripts of the calls.

He encouraged the jury to rise above excuses and issues of racism. “At some point, people will be accountable for what they do.”

He ended by reminding the court of Watson’s phone calls one more time. “Someone who says, ‘I’ll take a deal for anywhere in the neighborhood of 30 years’—really? That’s someone who didn’t do it?”

The jury will reconvene tomorrow morning to deliberate.

Outside the courtroom at the end of the day, Farber’s aunt, Roxane Winston, said she thought the jury would arrive quickly at a guilty verdict.

“The evidence speaks for itself,” Winston said.

Photo: Arlon Watson, at his arraignment in February 2010. Credit: Al Seib/Los Angeles Times

More stories on the Arlon Watson trial:

Arlon Watson given long sentence for murder of Compton teenager

Arlon Watson trial offers glimpse of gang life in Compton

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Arlon Watson trial offers glimpse of gang life in Compton

January 28, 2011 By 1 Comment


Ashley Webb did not enter the courtroom through the main door. She came in through the cage on the side of the room—a distinguishing feature of the courtrooms on the 10th floor of the Compton Courthouse, one of the two levels in the building dubbed “high security.”

Deputy District Attorney Joseph Porras asked the petite 21-year-old to describe what she was wearing to the jury.

Looking down at her orange jumpsuit, Webb replied, “Jail clothes. And handcuffs.”

“And were you wearing jail clothes yesterday?” the Porras asked.

Webb responded that she was not. She was visibly shaking because she was here to testify for the prosecution.

Pop culture or gang culture?

imageWebb’s testimony was part of the continuing trial of Arlon Watson, a 22-year-old Compton resident charged with the 2009 shooting death of Dannie Farber, Jr., a Narbonne High School senior and star football player.

The Sunday night of Memorial Day Weekend two years ago, Farber was eating dinner at a Louisiana Fried Chicken on Rosecranz and Central avenues in Compton with his girlfriend. According to prosecutors, Watson walked in the restaurant and asked Farber where he was from. Farber stood up and responded that he “didn’t gangbang,” but moments later he was shot and killed. Farber’s family and friends say he was not involved in gang activities at all, but pictures on several online social networking websites show Farber throwing gang signs and wearing lots of red, a color commonly associated with the gang the Bloods. Prosecutors say Watson was involved with a rival gang, the Crips.

When Watson appeared in court in February 2010 for his arraignment, he sported a county-issued blue jumpsuit and bushy hair. At the trial on Thursday he wore more formal courtroom attire with his hair in braids and black, square-framed glasses. He spent much of the day hunched over, resting his elbows on his knees.

Before testimony began, Porras warned Farber’s family and friends that he would be showing graphic pictures of Farber from immediately after the shooting. Several family members chose to sit outside during the presentation.

The morning’s first testimony came from Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Sergeant Kenneth Roller. Roller confirmed that he and another officer were the first on the scene at the fast food restaurant the night of May 24, 2009. He arrived within 45 seconds of receiving the call of a shooting, but Farber did not appear to be breathing when he reached him. Roller identified around eight photographs he had taken that night, several showing spent shell casings that would have come from a semi-automatic gun. As the pictures became more graphic—close-ups showing Farber lying in pool of blood with several gunshot wounds to the chest–more of Farber’s family stepped outside the courtroom.

Roller said there was nothing about Farber’s outfit that night that jumped out as gang-related.
“He was wearing faded jeans and a white T-shirt. Gang members do wear outfits like that, but it’s also a look that’s in popular culture. My sons wear that outfit sometimes.”

Guardian angels

Sitting outside the courtroom during a lunch break, Farber’s grandmother, Michelle Malveaux, looked exhausted. She managed to smile and laugh weakly as younger family members cracked jokes.

“We’re all here,” Malveaux said. “Grandmas, Aunt Myrtle, and friends that are like family. They’ve been my guardian angels.”

Malveaux has been in court every day since the trial began on Monday. She’s not sure how long it will last.

“Definitely into next week,” she said. “Joe [Porras] may have told me the schedule, but things tend to go in one ear and out the other these days.”

Raffi Djabourian, forensic pathologist with Los Angeles Department of Coroner performed the autopsy on Farber. He confirmed in his testimony this afternoon that Farber died of three gunshot words, including one that severed his aorta and would have caused Farber to be brain-dead almost instantly because of loss of blood. Pictures from autopsy accompanied his testimony.

Watching from the back row of the courtroom, Malveaux pulled her sweater up and over her eyes, as if hiding under a blanket.

On a good day

Webb had been asked to appear in court on Monday. When she did not show up again after being served a subpoena at a basketball practice at a local college, she was arrested last night and taken to the Compton Sheriff’s Department. Webb had never spent time in jail before.

When asked why she didn’t show up to testify, Webb said that she was scared and worried about the safety of her mom and brother.

Webb grew up in Compton in the territory of a gang known as the Tragniew Park Crips. She knows many Crips, including some of her friends, but said she has never been involved in gang activity. She knew Watson by his nickname, A-Whack, and knew he was associated with the Crips.

Several nights after the shooting, Webb was hanging out with friends, including Watson, in her front yard. While her friends were discussing the shooting, someone asked Watson if he had pulled the trigger. Webb said that Watson told her he did. 
She also said Watson had called Farber a “slob,” a term Crips use to disrespect members of their rival gang, the Bloods.

Webb never went to authorities with the information for fear of being labeled a snitch. She said she had heard stories since middle school about the bad things that happen to people who tell on others in her neighborhood.

Just over a year ago, in early January 2010, Webb said the knowledge of what Watson said he had done began to weigh heavily on her. After encouragement from a friend, she spoke to a detective in the Los Angeles Police Department.

In October 2009, Webb was arrested for breaking into a house, but the DA rejected the case and charges were dropped. Webb denied she had been offered any sort of bargain or promised the incident would never come to trial.

Before she left the stand, Porras touched again the seriousness of snitching in the gang community. He asked Webb how tall she was.

“Five one-and-half,” she said. “On a good day.”

Testimony will continue into next week. If Watson is convicted as charged, he faces a maximum prison term of 50 years to life, according to the DA’s office.

Photo courtesy of Scott Varley / Torrance Daily Breeze

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Crowds gather in Leimert Park for Kingdom Day Parade

January 17, 2011 By 3 Comments


Leimert Park Village leapt to life this Martin Luther King Jr. Day as families filled the sidewalks surrounding the intersection of Crenshaw and West Martin Luther King Jr. boulevards to watch the Kingdom Day Parade and join in festivities honoring the holiday’s namesake.

Marching bands and drill teams from Beckman, Crenshaw, and Inglewood High Schools, among others, filled the streets with bold, brassy music as Los Angeles City Council members waved to their constituents from slow-moving convertibles.

At the end of the parade route, booths had been set up selling everything from food to tote bags to King-inspired T-shirts.

Crenshaw High School freshman and marching band member Tierney Shellmyer relaxed in the shade under the awning of the Vision Theater. He said it was hot marching and playing in a heavy uniform, but he was glad to be able to be a part of the day’s events.

“It’s good to be in the band. We have fun,” Shellmyer added. “And once we got down here towards Crenshaw, that’s when we really started playing. There were a whole bunch of people and we thought, OK, now we gotta really play.”

Radio station KJLH set up a stage in Leimert Park where local singers performed gospel songs or music that reminded them of King.

During a break in the music, 8th District Councilmember Bernard Parks took the stage and introduced Congresswoman Maxine Waters, who had flown in from Washington for the weekend.

Waters noted that while there is plenty of cause for celebration, today’s holiday does have a more serious side.

“We don’t simply come out just to have a good time,” Waters said. “We come out to give recognition to the fact that he lived, and he died for us. He sacrificed for justice and peace, and so we’ve got to be about some serious business.”

For Waters, that first order of serious business back in Washington is making sure the health care reform bill is not repealed.

On the sidewalks, however, kids eating snow cones, clowns crafting balloon animals, and high school friends hugging after a successful parade performance made it hard to stay too serious for too long.

Related Stories:

Inglewood pays tribute to legacy of Martin Luther King Jr.
Soul food, Leimert Park and World of Curls

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Ruling says corporations and unions can provide unlimited funding for political advertisements

November 4, 2010 By Leave a Comment


Listen to the audio story:

—–

If it seemed like there were even more political advertisements than usual leading up to this year’s election, you can partially thank the Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission ruling from the beginning of the year.

The Citizens United case determined that corporations and unions can spend as much as they want on political advertisements. The United States Supreme Court ruled that this type of spending is a protected form of free speech under the First Amendment.

At this point, it is not entirely clear how much of the outside spending in this election cycle came from corporations. Eugene Volokh, a law professor at University of California, Los Angeles said the court case could definitely play a role in increased spending, and thus more political advertisements being broadcast.

One thing he thinks people are forgetting about the ruling is that it includes unions as well as corporations.

“Many people think of Citizens United as just a corporate speech case, but it applies every bit as much to unions,” Volokh said. “Before Citizens United, in about half the states, both corporations and unions were restricted from spending their money in order to express their views about candidates. Now, both corporations and unions are free to do so.”

But the unlimited spending is just one side of the equation. Transparency is another issue entirely.

In many states, there are loopholes when it comes to disclosing who paid for an advertisement. Other states had stricter transparency laws, but violations are often under-enforced.

Richard Hasen is a law professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles. He sees this lack of transparency as a big potential problem for the future.

“If we go into the 2012 election without adequate disclosure, we’re going to be in a tough situation,” Hasen said. “Voters rely upon information about who’s backing candidates and measures. If you know that a candidate is backed by the NRA or the Sierra Club, that gives you a lot of information about whether or not it’s a candidate you might want to back. Going forward, if we don’t have that kind of information on a federal level, it will be very hard for voters to discern who is backing what candidates.”

And going back to the unions, Volokh sees another troubling situation.

“A possible downside of the spending that is indeed there is the possibility that politicians will feel indebted to those groups who independently spent in order to support them,” Volokh said.

Despite the uncertainties about the exact role corporations and unions will play in the election of candidates, one thing is clear: outsider spending on political advertisemens is here to stay.

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Candidates tour South L.A. churches before midterm elections

November 1, 2010 By 6 Comments


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imageListen to the Rev. John Hunter speak about the relationship between politics and the black church.

As part of a final surge of energy before voters take to the polls on Tuesday, a group of candidates made one last round of visits to a handful of churches in South Los Angeles Sunday morning.

Last weekend Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jerry Brown spoke to several congregations in South Los Angeles and Compton. This weekend saw a small entourage of candidates, including Kamala Harris and Karen Bass, making appearances at six churches with historically black congregations. Harris is running for Attorney General and Bass for Congress, representing the 33rd district. Both are Democrats.

While the Attorney General race is a dead heat between Harris and Republican Steve Cooley, according to a Field Poll released Friday, Bass is considered a shoo-in for the district. Her campaign thus far has been noticeably quiet.

At one of their stops, the First African Methodist Episcopal Church, other candidates and officials could be seen seated at the two front rows of pews as well. Among them were Diane Watson, the retiring Congresswoman whose seat Bass hopes to fill; City Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas; Laphonza Butler, a president at Service Employees International Union; Tom Torlakson, who is running for State Superintendent of Public Instruction; Curren Price, a State Assemblymember; Holly Mitchell, a State Assembly candidate; and Abel Maldonado, the current Lieutenant Governor.

Maldonado was the only Republican in the group. His opposition in the Lieutenant Governor’s race, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, attended First African Methodist Episcopal Church’s service last week with Jerry Brown.

imageTowards the beginning of the service, the Rev. John Hunter stood before his congregation and acknowledged the visitors in the audience.

“Running is a tedious process. Being a candidate for anything means you have to have endurance to continue to press your case,” he said. “And I’m excited because there are some quality individuals that are offering themselves to serve at a critical time in the life of our state and of our country, and we need godly leadership.”

The tradition of inviting candidates to visit and even speak from the pulpit of black churches goes back to the beginnings of black churches in America, said the Rev. William Monroe Campbell, pastor of Mount Gilead Missionary Baptist Church in Los Angeles.

“In the black community, churches have been the historically preeminent vehicle for looking after the good and welfare of the community,” Campbell said earlier in the week over the phone. “As slaves, the only occasion for freedom and gathering were spiritual services, and over time, this invisible institution became the church.”

Campbell explained that the pastor was not only the leader of the church, but the principal spokesperson for the community. Because of the education required to become a pastor, these were the people who had the knowledge and exposure to mobilize large groups of people to become active in their communities.

Today, he said, there are ways of communicating outside the church. Campbell attends city council meetings and labor union gatherings, but the church, he believes, is still the focal gathering place, and the place candidates come to reach a specific audience of voters.

The Rev. Cecil “Chip” Murray agrees. Murray was the pastor of the First African Methodist Episcopal Church for 27 years. He’s now a professor of religion at the University of Southern California.

“The black preacher has learned how to walk the line between church and state with caution,” Murray said. “It’s something pastors constantly remind each other about.”

Murray said the church doors are open to candidates on both sides of the political divide. The tradition of having candidates visit the church is less about endorsing someone in particular and more about encouraging people to vote, he said.

Back at First, Hunter started to tread that perilous line Murray mentioned.

image“We’re a church. We’re a separate entity. A 501(c)(3). We can’t tell you who to vote for,” said Hunter. “But I can tell you as an individual, I voted for Kamala Harris the other day by mail. I’m excited that she’s about to become the first woman and first African American attorney general in the state of California. I’m excited. Are you excited? If you’re excited about Kamala Harris, come on and stand up on your feet and give God some praise!”

With that, members leapt to their feet and offered a huge round of applause as Harris made her way up to the pulpit.

Harris spoke briefly but eloquently from the front of the church.

“We are going to do this. And we are going to do this because we are each and all of us strong in our faith about what we can do to improve this state, to reform the criminal justice system, and to make it clear that everyone should be seen and heard and let them know that their voices matter.”

Listen to more of Harris’s speech at the First African Methodist Episcopal Church.

After Harris spoke, Hunter invited all of the candidates to join him at the altar as he offered a prayer for them.

“What we have are good people, seeking to do good things,” Hunter said.

He asked that the candidates be endowed with wisdom and a sense of equity and fairness. Hunter kept his prayer short, knowing that the candidates had other churches to visit. As the group filed out a side door of the church, Hunter joked, “Ushers, get their offering on the way out, would you?”

imageListen to the complete prayer over the candidates.

Outside of the church, Harris spoke about her relationship with First African Methodist Episcopal Church.

“This church is the leader on so many issues about creating healthy communities. When the government does its work best is when we are collaborating with all of the leaders of a community.”

Harris mentioned a few of the church’s projects she respected, including educating people about mortgage fraud and bringing a farmers’ market to the area.

“I’m here this morning because it’s where I’ve been coming many Sundays to talk with the community, and listen to the community, and hopefully reflect the values of the community as we go forward,” Harris said.

With that, Harris hopped back in a car, off to the City of Refuge Church in Gardena.

For more photographs from the service at the First African Methodist Episcopal Church, click here.

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