In race for Cook County circuit court clerk, black clergy are mobilizing for Richard Boykin

The shofar blew as several dozen ministers crowded into Quinn Chapel AME Church, the Bronzeville church and home of the largest black congregation in Chicago.

The ram’s horn, a traditional Jewish instrument that signals victory and liberation, announced the clergy assembled Thursday at the African Methodist Episcopal church.

“This group today, we’re showing our independence from the Democratic Party,” exhorted the Rev. Ira Acree of the Greater St. John Bible Church. Applause and “Amens.”

It’s time.

They gathered on a snowy morning to defy the Democratic Party and endorse Richard Boykin for Cook County Clerk of the Circuit Court.

For eons, black voters have supported candidates dictated by their party instead of their hearts, dutifully electing stars and scoundrels at the party’s behest.

The clerk’s office, currently occupied by Dorothy Brown, is decidedly a “down-ballot” contest. In 2000, Brown bucked the party and won, with a heavy lift from African American church leaders.

Now Brown is retiring in the wake of federal investigations. Boykin and three others are vying to replace her:

Jacob Meister, a longtime Chicago lawyer and LGBTQ activist, challenged and lost to Brown in 2016.

State Sen. Iris Martinez, who has represented the Northwest Side since 2003, is an assistant majority leader and the first Latina elected to the Illinois Senate.

In August, Michael M. Cabonargi, a longtime commissioner on the Cook County Board of Review, won the party bosses’ endorsement. Typically, that would ensure him front-runner status.

The bishops, pastors, and preachers at Quinn Chapel prayed on that one.

“Unfortunately in our community, they expect African Americans just to line up,” Acree said. “It’s all across the country with the party, no matter what.”

But “We’re saying, in this race, we’re going to make that choice.”

Cabonargi, who is white, was slated at the urging of Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, the first African American and first woman to chair the Cook County Democratic Party.

Boykin is not on Preckwinkle’s warm and fuzzy list. He was a loud and persistent critic of the county soda tax she championed, then lost.

When Boykin ran for reelection last year, it was payback time. Preckwinkle pushed Chicago Teachers Union organizer Brandon Johnson for Boykin’s county board seat. Boykin lost.

“I’ve paid a heavy political price for the level of compassion and commitment that I’ve demonstrated for the people,” Boykin said at the press conference.

The ministers didn’t want to talk about the soda tax, perhaps the most unpopular tax ever bestowed on county voters.

They touted Boykin, a lawyer who grew up poor in Englewood and is now a practicing attorney. The clergy cite his independence and close community ties. And he’s an ordained minister, to boot.

Boykin previously served as chief of staff to U.S. Rep. Danny Davis, who has also endorsed him in the race.

“I will always put people over politics,” Boykin said.

The ministers plan to blow their own horn and “organize a massive ‘souls to the polls’ campaign,” said Rev. Leslie Saunders, pastor of Hope Presbyterian Church of Chicago.

“We’re going to be mobilizing, block by block. We’re going to have each pastor, really become like a precinct captain. They’re going to be organizing people in and around their churches ...”

The black preacher can be a potent persuader.

But this is just one race. What else you got?

Follow Laura S. Washington on Twitter @MediaDervish

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