Voter Empowerment Townhall on 9/8
Initiatives of Change USA is partnering with St. Peter Baptist Church Social Justice Ministry to host a Virtual Townhall on voter information pertaining to the November 2020 Elections.
Join us for an informative conversation about important dates, including deadline to register to vote, or update an existing registration, the easiest and more secure way to request an absentee ballot, changes that may have occurred since the last election and other vital information.
We believe that the ability to cast your vote is the most important civil right of all citizens. It is our goal to bring new citizens into the political process and to re-ignite the enthusiasm of those who have engaged in the process all their lives.
Hopefully, we will do our part to mobilize thousands of citizens to get out to vote…thus having the largest get-out-the vote in the history of America.
You will hear from Mark Coakley, the Director of Elections/Registrar Henrico County, Christopher Rashad Green, the Lead Organizer for New Virginia Majority’s Criminal Justice Campaigns. The host for the Townhall is Rev. Dr. Kirkland L. Walton from St. Peter Baptist Church. You will have the opportunity to learn about the early voting system. Also, we will talk about and explain the voter restoration rights. It is our goal to eliminate the barriers to voting and improving the communications about areas where confusion exists about the election. We want to make sure that voters feel protected from practices that may be designed to keep them off the voter rolls and out of the voting booth.
Join the Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85058410997
Meeting ID: 850 5841 0997
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Meeting ID: 850 5841 0997
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TOWNHALL SPEAKERS
Mark Coakley has been the Henrico County General Registrar since 2004. He started working in the elections field in Guildford County in 1996.
He holds the North Carolina Certified Administrator of Elections certificate, Virginia Registered Election Official certificate, and the Auburn University Certified Elections Administrator Graduate certificate. Also, he is a UNC Institute of Government Effective Management Program Graduate.
Mark was born in Greensboro, NC, and graduated from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Mark is active in the Sandston Rotary and a 3- time Paul Harris Fellow. He attends Trinity UMMC and is married to Hilary and has one son, James.
Christopher Rashad Green-the formerly-incarcerated activist and advocate uses his gifts of discernment and empathy to articulate distinctly, his emotional experiences in the criminal system. As a Community Organizer, he has assisted thousands of Virginia residents with Voter Registration and getting their Voting Rights restored.
Presently, he is leading New Virginia Majority's Constitutional Amendment Campaign for AUTOMATIC Restoration of Voting Rights, by mobilizing Community Members who are directly-impacted by Voter Disenfranchisement.
He has recently launched a new reentry initiative, Free*Dome Unlimited, Inc. A Transformative & Holistic approach to addressing recidivism and the social determinants to good health.
TOWNHALL HOST
The Reverend Dr. Kirkland R. Walton is the older of two sons born to the union of the late Kirkland E. Walton and Rosalie J. Walton in Richmond, Virginia. He is a product of the Richmond City Public Schools System, graduating from Maggie L. Walker High School in 1969. Following the completion of his secondary education, Dr. Walton continued his academic preparation at Virginia State University in Petersburg, Virginia, graduating with a B.S. degree in Geology in 1973.
During his college years, Dr. Walton had the opportunity to serve in summer internships with the United States Geological Survey, the Amoco Petroleum Corporation, and the Gulf Oil Company. He has done post-graduate studies at the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington, the University of Houston in Houston, Texas, and the Presbyterian School of Christian Education in Richmond, Virginia. Dr. Walton is an honor graduate from the School of Theology at Virginia Union University where he received his M.Div. degree in 1979. He also has the distinction and pleasure of being one of the first seven persons to receive an earned Doctor of Ministry degree from the School of Theology in 1993.
Dr. Walton was licensed to the Gospel Ministry in December 1977 and ordained in April 1980 by the First Baptist Church of South Richmond. For three and a half years, he served as the Minister of Education at First Baptist Church before becoming the first full time pastor of the St. Peter Baptist Church in Glen Allen, Virginia in 1985. While serving the people of St. Peter Baptist Church, Dr. Walton has led the congregation in two expansion projects which have included new educational and administrative spaces, a Child Development Center, and a new sanctuary.
Prior to embracing his call to the ministry, Dr. Walton was the first African American Petroleum Geologist with the Gulf Oil Company and the first African American Groundwater Geologist with the State Water Control Board of Virginia. He has served as an adjunct faculty member in the Evans-Smith Institute at the School of Theology as well as a workshop leader across the state of Virginia. Dr. Walton has served two consecutive terms as the Chairperson for the Commission of Christian Education for the Baptist General Convention of Virginia, taught in the Congress of the National Baptist Convention, U.S.A., and served as the featured preacher for the American Baptist Churches, U.S.A. in Greenlake, Wisconsin. He has been a contributing writer to numerous Baptist General Convention publications and in the Glen Allen community; he has served as president of the Henrico Minister's Fellowship and the Laurel Glen Allen Ministerial Alliance.
Dr. Walton is a former Chairperson for the Commission of Christian Education for the Baptist General Convention of Virginia, Dean and Assistant Dean of the Congress of Christian Education for the same. Presently, he is a member of the faculty of the Samuel DeWitt Proctor School of Theology of Virginia Union University serving as one of six Scholars in Context and the Council of Elders.
Dr. Walton is married to his college sweetheart and best friend, the former Brenda Diana Bowman of Richmond, Virginia, who is a retired educator and former principal in the Richmond Public Schools System.