Local News

Religious and community leaders met at the Anniston Meeting Center on Sunday looking for ways to "do something" about societal ills in the community.

The "Let's do something!" themed leadership and education summit was organized by Rising Star United Methodist Church in Hobson City, in conjunction with the church's 121st anniversary.

Sunday's event filled about half of the 900 chairs in a ballroom at the meeting center. The gathering included church members, local residents, politicians and a contingent of recent candidates for Anniston city elective offices.

The program originally was billed to feature Birmingham Mayor Larry Langford, but when Rising Star Pastor Dr. Randy B. Kelley stood to introduce the mayor, he told the crowd the mayor had canceled due to illness. That part of the program was rescheduled for Jan. 18, at 3 p.m., in Glen Addie Church, he said.

Speakers who took to the podium highlighted a number of community issues and prayed for strength in its path forward.

Among them, Michael Morrison of Sable Learning Center in Hobson City recognized two young ladies who had distinguished themselves in their academic pursuits at the center.

Jacksonville State University Gospel Choir provided a number of musical selections that had the crowd clapping and swaying, lending a church-like intensity to the event.

Maudine Holloway, church member and Director of Community Enabler, gave a brief history of the church. Rising Star was founded under tremendous adversity by "10 men with 165 dollars and the grace of God," she said.

Pastor Kelley echoed the story in his keynote address. He said the church has always been an "activist church," which came into being because of political disenfranchisement and racial discrimination.

Sunday's program was a way of bringing in all of the political and social stakeholders, Kelley said.

"People in the community are hungry now for new leadership," he said.

The group had tables set up near the doors of the ballroom with voter registration forms, SCLC memberships, NAACP memberships, and sign-up sheets for the church's male mentorship program.

"The issues have changed. We can't continue to ruminate on the past without concentrating on the future," Kelley said.

The pastor called on community leaders and churches to fight against a departure from traditional values, citing statistics on black high school dropouts, incarcerated people and pregnant teens.

Kelley said he invited Langford because Langford has initiated innovative programs in Birmingham to combat such problems.

He mentioned a program sponsored by Langford that provides laptop computers in inner-city schools; another that uses vacated schools for alternative education programs; and the naming of Birmingham International Airport in honor of civil rights leader the Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth.

"He has done all of that, and he has been mayor for less than a year. He is a mover and a shaker," Kelley said.

Anniston's mayor-elect, Gene Robinson, delivered the program's welcome. Robinson said Anniston needs to listen to what Langford has to say.

"He is so innovative and has so many ideas," Robinson said.

Robinson also said Langford is "one of us" because the Birmingham mayor has been "attacked by the Birmingham News just like I have been attacked since day one."

Robinson referred to an editorial in the Sept. 29 Anniston Star, which he held up as he spoke.

"This is not the kind of welcome we need to be giving a visionary," said Robinson.