AC Phoenix, April 1990, Page 3
Empowering the Black Community Through Voting
by Patricia Smith-
Deering
This final in a series of
interviews with the
much- beleagured
Rodney Sumler focuses
on the integral role he
has played in the politi
cal empowerment of in
dividuals in the black
community.
Recognizing that the
right to vote has been a
hard-fought battle for
blacks, Sumler has
been actively involved
with efforts to bring that
empowerment about.
For 22 years Sumler
has been a registrar in
Winston-Salem starting
in the Carver precinct,
then the Mineral
Springs precinct, and
currently serving as a
registrar in the
Lowrance precinct in
the Northeast Ward. He
estimates that during
that time he has regis
tered more than 5,000
blacks, including 1,000
black Republicans. “I
was a Democratic regis
trar for 10 years,” he
says, “and I've been a
Republican registrar for
12 years.”
Sumter's involvement
in politics began in high
school when he was
elected president of the
Atkins High School stu
dent council and con
tinued later with the
Carver Civic Club. He
says, “I was elected
president of the once
powerful Carver Civic
Club that was instru
mental in starting the
Carver precinct." That
precinct, he contends,
has led the city's black
community and the
city’s black precincts for
the last 25 years in the
percentage of blacks
that turn out to vote."
Working together, the
Carver precinct-where
he was registrar at the
time-and the Carver
Civic Club encouraged
more voting, arranged
to get candidates be
fore the people, and, as
Sumler puts it, “decided
on who they were going
to vote for collectively."
Sumler believes that a
number of the problems
he has experienced.
both past and present,
stem from his
Republican affiliation,
being a catalyst for
change, and his other
political involvement. He
discovered in 1975
during an NAACP voter
registration drive that
some of those he had
registered as
Republicans two years
earlier had been re
jected without his being
notified. “A lot of them
were disqualified be
cause the Democrats in
charge of the Board of
Elections at that time
didn't want black
Republicans (and)
would find fault with
my...process for regis
tration and purged
some of these people."
He adds, “I don’t know
why they were purged. I
didn’t know that they
had been purged...No
one notified me that
there was anything
wrong.”
He links the demise of
the Carver Civic Club to
that same party affilia
tion. Referring to his
termination in 1975 from
the City of Winston-
Salem Recreation
Department, Sumler
says, “I was fired after I
became a Republican
and angered some
blacks. I was termi
nated...allegedly for vio
lating purchasing pro
cedures for getting a
discount for three color
televisions that I
bought." He insists,
however, that he had
done no more and no
less than white city em
ployees. He explains, “I
used my money to pur
chase door prizes to
promote a city-wide
youth program." But, as
a result, he says, “The
Carver Civic Club was
victimized by my being
fired by the City of
Winston-Salem. It’s un
fortunate that black
people don’t under
stand that the more you
become empowered to
help other people, the
weaker you are in terms
of helping yourself be
cause when you need
help, who’s there to
help the helper?” He
continues, “We as a
people don't work to
gether." Summing up
the two incidents, he
concludes, “It shows
that there's a dual sys
tem and shows that I
was fired for racist rea
sons by white people
and political reasons by
black people because
black folks were the
ones who helped start
the process of getting
me fired.”
Sumler has found that
being outspokenly criti
cal in the political arena
and daring to be differ
ent can take its toll when
the black community is
not supportive and the
white power structure
seeks to destroy an in
dividual who has sought
simply to “give some
thing back to my com
munity," as he states his
case. “I take issue with
the fact that white peo
ple still want to pick who
the black leaders are for
us. The white media,
the white 'powers that
be' seem to always want
to pick the black folk that
they want to deal with."
In fact he believes that
the current FBI/IRS in
vestigation into his activ
ities stems from white,
and some black, per
ceptions of his role in
the black community.
He says, “Blacks need
to remember what FBI
means. It has a history of
investigating presidents
(unfairly), their own
boss, (and) each other,
every man (Dr. King, for
example) and any black
man in America that is
trying to help black
people.
“As far as this investi
gation of me is con
cerned, I think it was a
deliberate effort to dis
credit black leadership
and me and to further
separate black leader
ship and anger people
at me," Sumler says.
Referring to a com
ment that appeared in a
Winston-Salem
Journal article when
the investigation was
uncovered, Sumler con
tends, “The Journal
came out and made a
comment that I had
been a force In the black
See Empowering, page 4
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