Firing up local voters

Mathis speaks at Tallahassee church

By Aetna Smith

DEMOCRAT STAFF WRITER

The one-time gang member and convicted felon Judge Greg Mathis addressed a packed house Tuesday night about the importance of voting in the fall elections.

Mathis is best known for his television court show "Judge Mathis." His visit to Tallahassee was part of the local chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference's Get Out The Vote Rally at Bethel Missionary Baptist Church.

Dressed in a gray suit, Mathis presented a political commentary on civil rights in America that fluctuated from the comedic to the fiery.

"I thank God for the progress that has been made and how we've fought to undo the barriers of segregation," he said. "I thank God for the landmark decisions - now we have the 40th anniversary of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 50th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education."

He explained that these acts, including the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and other Supreme Court decisions provided the legal framework to support the work of civil rights leaders like the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

"This next election is so important because the next president will appoint two - or up to four - of the next U.S. Supreme Court justices," he said. "So what does that mean? (Last) week, we have witnessed the intoxicating coverage of the memorial of our former President Ronald Reagan.

"He passed the (Martin Luther) King holiday and then he put the fire back under many of us because of his policies. He cut HUD's budget in half and homelessness increased by 200 percent. Black poverty tripled. We needed Ronald Reagan. Lots of you thought the struggle was over until he woke you up."

Mathis said that America was living with the remnants of Reagan's policies today because some of his Supreme Court appointments remain on the bench.

Mathis also turned his attention to Florida, criticizing 11 counties that he said still have "flawed voting ballot machines."

"You just can't get right," he told the audience. "Wait a minute, I'm going to have to start calling you 'Can't Get (it) Right Florida.' I know you're used to seeing me on TV and seeing me have fun ... but there's nothing funny about a U.S. Supreme Court who decides who serves as our president and is an accomplice to one of the biggest election frauds of the century."

"When we fight we win," he said. "We must protect that which Dr. King gave his life for - our civil rights, our voting rights. You've got laws which prohibit ex-felons from voting who have done their time."

Noting his own criminal past before being elected to Michigan's 36th District Court as Superior Court judge in 1995, Mathis said: "I would have not been able to vote for myself had there been those archaic type of laws in Michigan."

Mathis, a national board member of the SCLC, also shared with the audience his Tallahassee roots. He said his mother was raised here and he has four brothers who were born here. He's also the first cousin of former Florida A&M University President Walter Smith.

Mathis and other SCLC leaders, including interim national president the Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth, encouraged attendance at the civil rights group's national conference in Jacksonville next month. In his lifetime, Shuttlesworth has been arrested 35 times, bombed twice and been involved in 40 lawsuits related to civil rights protections.

"Are you ready to fight for your rights, walk the streets like we did in Birmingham?" Shuttlesworth asked the crowd. "We will be crisscrossing this land until justice runs down to Tallahassee. ... Nobody can ride your back if you straighten up."