Where do we go from here? When do we take action? There are two critical questions for the North Charleston African American Community. To move in the right direction, we must know where we are in relation to our goal. The African American community in North Charleston is in excess of 33,000 votes strong. This is our starting point and being educated to utilize the strength of unified voting is the road we must travel to reach our destination. The answer to the first question is we must go to the polls on Nov. 7, 2023, to cast a unilateral vote for John Singletary. Our goal is to vote into office John Singletary as Mayor of North Charleston on Nov. 7, 2023. That is our goal! The opportunity to have our dreams and our children’s dreams come true, is tied to whether we can elect John Singletary as the new Mayor of North Charleston.
We begin the process and take action immediately by educating ourselves and developing a mindset that will enable us to overcome the propaganda and untruths that have plastered our community in the past. We live in South Carolina’s third largest city. North Charleston is one of the state’s largest economies. North Charleston’s Mayor-Council form of government dictates that our target for economic inclusion must be the Mayor’s seat, no other position will do. For African Americans, in North Charleston, the most important position to obtain economic, social, and political parity is the position of Mayor of North Charleston. There must be a concerted effort and movement on the part of each and every individual in the African American community to consolidate their vote into the unity in the community campaign. Every individual must do his/her part and no individual must go without educating other African Americans of the opportunity we have at hand and the importance of understanding what is at stake. Each individual must make it a part of at least one conversation every day until Nov. 7, 2023. We are not crying nor complaining about the past, but recognizing it as a pitfall we need to avoid in the future and so we remember it as Peter did by using a thorn in his side to have faith, hope, strength, courage and perseverance for the future.
The Deprivation of Human Rights, Civil Rights, Economic Inclusion, Social Engagement, and Political Power for the past 24 years dictates the necessity to elect John Singletary as Mayor in 2019. The answer to the question of when is Nov. 7, 2023, by casting a unilateral vote for John Singletary as Mayor of North Charleston.
We are at the edge of greatness. The African American Community cannot afford to have 28,000 African American votes go without being cast as we did in 2019. Together, John Singletary and the citizens of North Charleston will realize the dream when he is elected as the new Mayor of North Charleston. Now we must count on each other, stand united, and victory will be ours as Poet Countee Cullen says “We shall not always plant while others reap”, it is our time to be included in the harvest.