On bus trip to Tallahassee, Black Floridians fight uphill battle at Capitol

As about two dozen people milled quietly in and out of a small room just off the worship sanctuary inside Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Institutional Church around 4 a.m. on Wednesday, a poster of Rosa Parks hung overhead declaring: “The choices you make in life determine your destiny.”

All of them, ranging in age from mid-20s to mid-70s, rose hours before dawn and made the choice to take the round trip from the Parramore church to Tallahassee with Equal Ground, a nonprofit focused on building Black political power. At the Capitol, they would join the uphill battle to convince the Republican-led legislature to stop bills that could dramatically change education policy, gun laws and voting rights in the state.

There they met up with nearly 200 other mostly Black residents from St. Petersburg, Tampa, Daytona and Miami.

In the group there was a freelance artist, a clergy member, retired public school employees, crime victims, aspiring politicos, Black women who remember integrating public schools in the towns they lived in as children and formerly incarcerated Black men, one of whom regained his voting rights after serving prison time and another, a Vietnam War veteran, who will likely never get to cast a ballot in an election again because of his crimes more than 40 years ago.

“If we believe that we aren’t a part of that process, that we don’t have an input, then we won’t be involved,” said Jasmine Burney-Clark, founder and consulting director for Equal Ground. “That is why we’re taking people to Tallahassee. … Being able to talk on the record in Tallahassee and provide public comment and share your position does create an opportunity to sway a legislator who may not have ever heard from you specifically or heard from Black constituents in their district.”

It would be easy to assume that in a conservative, Republican-dominated legislature, it would be impossible to find allies who believe in the progressive agenda of a group like Equal Ground, Burney-Clark said. But moving the needle even a little can have an immense impact on the future political landscape across the state, she added.

“Our hope is being able to change the hearts and minds of people,” she said. “We don’t believe that the bills we want to be stopped will be stopped but we do believe we can certainly mitigate the harm that is going to come down from the bills that are going to be impacting our state because a supermajority is difficult to overcome.”

The bills most concerning to the leaders at Equal Ground include House Bill 999 which would limit how colleges can spend on diversity, equality and inclusion efforts on campus. Burney-Clark said she is concerned for what that could mean for funding for Historically Black Colleges and Universities, multicultural campus organizations and even academic programs that teach about subjects like African American History and Women’s Studies.

Before the trip, Kristina Lee-Moorer, 25, had never spoken directly to a lawmaker tasked with representing her community’s concerns in congress.

[ Pictures: Day of Action at the Capitol ]

She sat in a morning session where she was able to hear Rep. Anna Eskamani speak about HB-999 and other bills that had little support from Democrats but would likely pass because of the Republican supermajority. She said the trip was a learning experience.

“Reading up on [the legislative process] is different from them actually speaking,” she said. “I follow some of these representatives but being able to actually hear them talk, not only about the laws and bills that are going to be passed but also hearing them talk on their stances, it inspired me and made me believe in them and be motivated. … It made me feel like I’m not alone, like we’re not alone. It also got me feeling a little angry but I feel fueled by that anger.”

The issues that brought others to Tallahassee were as varied as their life experiences.

Gra’dy Marshall, the 75-year-old Vietnam veteran, said he has already accepted that he will likely never see his voting rights restored after a second-degree murder conviction from the early 1980s for killing his girlfriend in an incident his lawyers said was caused by Post Traumatic Stress Disorder from combat.

At the time, he pleaded insanity but PTSD was not fully understood. Still, expert testimony was able to convince the jury that the killing was not premeditated. That helped him avoid a first-degree murder conviction and the death penalty, he said. He was released in 2011 after serving 28 years of his 75-year sentence.

Since his release, he rebuilt his life, started a lawn service business and became a homeowner. Though he can’t vote, he said he’s still engaged in the political process.

“The issue that brought me here is the voting rights of ex-felons and basically just the criminal justice system overall,” he said. “I think it needs revamping. There should be bipartisan support for that. … I can see the injustice.”

Also on the trip was Gail Gardner, who is the namesake for Gail’s Law, which passed in 2021 and allowed the creation of a tracking system for sexual assault evidence kits. Gardner was raped in 1988 but in 2019 learned that her rape kit had never been tested. When it finally was, she learned that her rapist had been jailed for another crime years earlier and was still in prison.

After seeing bipartisan support for her law, she said she was motivated to see support for other laws that could protect sexual assault survivors. But she has also embraced a new cause, affordable housing, after she had to move because she couldn’t afford skyrocketing rent.

Gardner said she rotates between staying with friends and relatives locally in Orange and Seminole Counties to maintain her Florida residency and also spends time with family in Georgia.

She said she didn’t support a housing bill signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis on Wednesday that promises more money for affordable housing but would bar municipalities from creating rent control ordinances like the one being considered in Orange County.

While many of the attendees listened to lawmakers who came to address them, Hope Bellamy went with a group that walked through the halls of the Capitol speaking with representatives and senators who were available to listen about Equal Ground’s position on a series of bills.

In particular, Bellamy, who spent time in prison but later regained his voting rights and ran for local office in Ocoee, was concerned about Senate Bill 150, which eliminates permit requirements for guns. Its supporters claimed the measure would aid in public safety but Bellamy felt it would make guns more accessible to criminals.

“The thing about me is that I did 12 years in the feds — in prison,” he told Senator Shervin Jones, D-Miami Gardens. “I’m one of the only ones that got my rights back through the governor. … As someone who came from the criminal lifestyle, that public safety bill, if passed the way it’s written, it gives the green light for the criminals to get more guns. That bill, it’s very, very important that we oppose that.”

But shortly after that conversation, the bill was approved by the Republican-led Senate.

After the drive back to Orlando that was slowed by several crashes on Interstate 75, Bellamy said his only wish is that the group could have gone to Tallahassee sooner to have a greater chance at softening the bill, even if Republican senators were determined to pass it.

His hope is that even if the bills he and others with Equal Ground opposed pass, Black Floridians from Orange County and across the state will become more engaged in the legislative process.

“Doing something like this, you need at least two trips” he said. “The first trip should be two weeks prior and you give them the information. Then you come back the day before the session with emails in between. We have to stay repetitive asking, repetitive with reaching out, with calls, repetitive with emailing. That’s how this works.”

dstennett@orlandosentinel.com