Speakers blared Beyoncé’s “Freedom.” People in political T-shirts lined up to fill their plates with Haitian food. Campaign signs that read “Ayisyen pou Harris” (“Haitians for Harris” in Creole) filled the grassy areas at the North Miami Public Library.
This was the bustling scene outside an early voting site picked out for a “Souls to the Polls” rally that has become an campaign season rite of many Black and Caribbean churches across South Florida.
“Being able to [vote] together with the brothers and sisters that we come to church with and that we live with and serve in the community, makes it that much more exciting,” said Rev. Dr. Cheryl Coleman, a minister at Friendship Missionary Baptist Church. “The Black church, that’s the one place many of us come for help and hope and really for the social ills that we face.”
The events are organized by a nonpartisan network of community organizers and clergy called Faith in Florida, which occupied a purple booth away from the people pushing individual candidates.
As an organizer with Faith in Florida, a coalition of over 900 congregations throughout Florida, Coleman works with churches and local pastors throughout Miami-Dade and Broward counties to organize ‘Souls to the Polls’ events to encourage congregations to vote — early if possible but just to be sure to vote by Election Day.
“Souls to the Polls is important to us because it helps us to get out … and to choose those leaders that would help represent what is needed for us in our community,” Coleman said, who is organizing an event for Central Dade churches next weekend at the Stephen P. Clark Government Center.
The statewide early voting initiative kicked off this weekend in Miami-Dade and around the state and will continue for the next few weeks. The tradition, borne out of the faith community, encourages voters — regardless of party affiliation — to cast their ballots ahead of election day. Organizers often provide transportation from churches to polling places and this year, there are themed events coupled with food and music to motivate voters.
“It’s a celebration,” said Rev. Rhonda Thomas, executive director of Faith in Florida. “We don’t turn anyone down. Everyone could be a part of it because it’s non-partisan, but we own the space that this started from the church.”
Faith in Florida has been championing Souls to the Polls events since 2012, according to Thomas, who spearheaded the effort when she was working as an organizer for the group.
“It’s so important that we as an organization try to help out as much as we possibly can to make sure that everyone has the best voting experience that everyone deserves,” she said.
From church origins to drag queens
Souls to the Polls originated within the faith community, largely among Black faith leaders during the Civil Rights era who wanted to increase voter turnout and push back against voter suppression tactics against marginalized people. Today, the effort has evolved into a way for the religious community to impact the larger community in getting out the vote, said Thomas.
“We have our traditional Souls to the Polls that is led by faith leaders. We have ‘trap to the polls’ that’s led by our millennials and Gen Zs, and we’re making history where we’re having our first ‘drag to the polls’ and ‘pride to the polls,” said Thomas.
Thomas said that when people from the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBTQ) community came to her asking for organize a drag queen themed event in Orlando, she was happy to include them.
“One of the things that touched my heart is to hear someone from the LGBTQ community say that they feel alone or they feel like they’ve been left out. And me, as a black woman, know what that feeling is … it is not a great feeling,” Thomas said.
Since 2021, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has launched a cultural and legislative battle against LGBTQ rights in Florida, passing laws that limit what teachers can discuss in the classroom when it comes to sexual orientation, and blocking gender affirming care for transgender adults.
Many Haitian Americans showed up to the early voting event in North Miami, some still outraged by the derogatory comments made by former president Donald Trump about Haitian immigrants.
“Listen, we got insulted on a platform that’s larger than the world to see. Literally saying that we’re stealing cats and eating pets,” said Linda Joseph, chairwoman of the advocacy group Haitians for Harris. “We all know it’s a lie, and we all know it was a way to stir up his base, but it has detrimental effects — mentally, spiritually, it’s demoralizing.”
Faith in Florida executive director Thomas said she believes the comments made by Trump will rally the Haitian community to show up and vote.
“The community is heartbroken,” Thomas said. “Many times we’re looking for a space of healing, a space where our voice can be heard. “[The Haitian community] is going to express it at the polls.”
Elected officials weigh in
North Miami mayoral candidate Naomi Blemur said at the event in North Miami that Souls to the Polls is an important way to engage the faith community in politics.
“It actually motivates them to come out as a group and vote on that day as an event, and that ultimately brings out a larger number of people,” she said.
Blemur, who grew up in a Pentecostal church, wore her signature yellow colored suit and chatted with people in line as they waited for food.
“As you can see today, they have young people, they have seniors. You have co-workers who are actually enjoying and eating with them, so they are really community centered,” she said about the Faith in Florida event. “And that ultimately lifts up our community.”
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Democratic Senator Shevrin ‘Shev’ Jones said in a phone interview with the Miami Herald that he often uses the event as a chance to cast his own ballot.
“I look forward to Souls to the Polls. Actually, That’s when I go vote,” Jones said. “I go vote on Sundays after I leave church, because there’s an energy, there’s a vibe that exists usually at early voting locations where there is excitement…”
Jones, who has been outspoken about his own religious background, said that November’s election, “more than any election, is important for the Black community.”
“When we see black folks going to the polls in these next few days, or voting in record numbers, it’s because black folks have been paying attention,” Jones said.
History of Souls to the Polls in Miami-Dade
In Miami-Dade, the ‘Souls to the Polls’ events have a long history rooted in social justice.
In 1979, Arthur McDuffie, an unarmed Black man, was beaten to death by white Miami-Dade police officers who later tried to cover up the murder to make it look like a motorcycle accident. After the officers were acquitted, riots broke out in Miami, which lasted three days, brought mass destruction and gained international attention.
What happened in the aftermath of the riots, according to Thomas who grew up going to a church in Opa-Locka, was an organized push from the Black community to vote in local elections. It was pastors like the late Reverend Arthur Jackson Jr. and the late Reverend Samuel Atchison, who brought their congregations to the polls on election day in the early 80s.
“It came from a place of disappointment, a place of anger, but to see where it is now to know that it’s been a celebration for people to actually get out and vote. We didn’t always have that,” she said, referring to voting access for Black Americans. Many Black people were deterred from voting in America due to tactics like poll taxes and literacy tests until the Voting Rights Act was passed in 1965.
Other religious institutions have been entering into the political arena through other avenues.
Catholic institutions in Florida, for instance, have donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to defeat an amendment on the ballot intended to overturn the state’s controversial restrictions on abortion access.
An evangelical church in Broward County has hosted political events aimed at shifting Broward’s voter base from red to blue, and other political efforts that align with the group’s larger goal of turning America into a Christian nation.
Over the summer, former president Donald Trump spoke at a Christian conference hosted by Turning Point USA in West Palm Beach, where he and others speakers claimed that God had intervened to spare the former president’s life after an assassination attempt days earlier.
At the event in North Miami, Elder Katrice Johnson, a pastor at Ebenezer Missionary Baptist Church in Hallandale Beach, said she comes from a long history of pastors who doubled as community organizers within the church.
Johnson and Rev. Coleman said that the organizing work within a faith community begins way before the Souls to the Polls events take place. Recently in Florida, churches have been stepping in to help educate their congregations on issues such as Black history, affordable housing, healthcare, among others, as well as engaging young people in community efforts.
“We do vote our self interest … What will benefit our community? That’s the way we lean and vote,” said Johnson. “When we vote individually, we have that right. That’s a part of our democracy. But when it all comes down to it, when you go in that in that booth, you have to vote your self interest in what is going to better your life.”
Find a Souls to the Polls event near you.
This story was produced with financial support from Trish and Dan Bell and from donors comprising the South Florida Jewish and Muslim Communities, in partnership with Journalism Funding Partners. The Miami Herald maintains full editorial control of this work.
