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By: Ora Nelson

The Covington County Committee for Equal Justice is sponsoring a blackout rally at the First Baptist Church on Whatley Street on June 27.

“Because of the time we’re living in and what’s going on, it’s time for people to be empowered to move forward and move on to a higher level of living and [a] higher level of quality and expectation,” said Darryl Calloway, pastor of First Baptist Church Whatley and member of the Covington County Committee for Equal Justice.

“We’ll talk about the power we have as a city, the state and group of people, and we’re going to talk about the power of information [at the rally],” said Calloway. “When I say the power of information, I mean having adequate information so we can make and form decisions not based off emotions or [on] any particular media [outlet].”

“It doesn’t matter about race, gender, nationality,” said Calloway. “We’re just trying to bring about togetherness and be able to address injustice.”

“We’re going to have voter registration and talk to everybody about how to become a voter if you’ve lost your rights as a voter because of felonies,” said Calloway. “We’re going to have a legal aid of Alabama there to provide information from a legal aspect.”

Calloway encourages people of any age to attend the “Economic Blackout Rally for the Cause of Injustice and Inequality.”

“This whole thing we’re doing is to allow people to know you have more power than you think you do and to get them motivated to exercise that power,” said Calloway.

The committee is in the process of becoming a recognized organization and is planning to have several more “teaching opportunities” like the blackout rally.

“We’re looking at it like this: everything we do is a teachable moment,” said Calloway. “The only way we can grow is to be taught to hear and understand. That’s what we want to do.”

“We…got together and started discussing a lot of the things that can be changed in Covington County and the things that need to be addressed for the racial injustice that was there, the gender injustice [there],” said Calloway. “We started looking at a lot of areas that we can advance in because we believe in Covington County and the people of Covington County but we also believe in improvement.”

“I always learned from my mother that the biggest room in the house is the room for improvement,” said Calloway. “And sometimes we fail to improve because we’re satisfied with the status quo.”

Calloway said the committee’s goal is to continue making improvements in the community and others.

“All we want to do is improve,” said Calloway. “We want to improve people’s quality of life.”

“This is not a race thing; this is not a gender thing; this is not a sex thing; this is a human being thing,” said Calloway. “This is a people thing.”

The event will last from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Attendees are required to wear masks during the event and to follow social distancing guidelines.

Calloway can be contacted at 334-399-5371 with questions about the committee or to direct people to other committee members.