U.W. Clemon, Alabama’s first Black federal judge and former state senator, is urging voters to go to the polls in this upcoming election.

The city of Birmingham honored Clemon with its “Putting People First” award during the AWAKEN 2024 ceremony at the Birmingham Museum of Art on Oct. 25. The annual honor celebrates the legacy of community leaders and activists who have shaped the city of Birmingham.

In 1980, President Jimmy Carter appointed Clemon the first Black federal judge in the history of the state. Clemon was also one of the first two Black people elected to the Alabama Senate after Reconstruction.

Standing behind the podium in the Birmingham Museum of Art auditorium, Clemon addressed the audience with words of ministry. He started his acceptance speech by quoting the gospel song “Woke Up This Morning,” he adapted the verse to address a statement made by former President Donald Trump.

“My brothers and sisters, I woke up this morning with a mind stayed on voting. Because I heard a convict who aspires to be president of this great nation declared that ours is a garbage can,” said Clemon. The statement was a response to Trump’s rhetoric at a rally in Arizona the day before. During the rally, the former president called the United States a “garbage can for the world,” as he criticized the Biden-Harris administration for its approach to policy at the border.

While Clemon expressed his staunch disapproval of Trump, his words were hopeful.

“I’ve seen in these 81 years. I’ve seen the power of the vote. My senior year in Columbia Law School, I did a paper called ‘Reapportionment in Alabama: The Unfulfilled Duty.’ Well, that duty is still unfulfilled. But in the meantime, I’ve seen the power of the vote,” said Clemon, addressing the tenacity of lawyers, activists, and politicians fighting to restore and protect voting rights.

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“I’ve seen the power of the vote when it resulted in the election of the first Black mayor of Birmingham. And when Jimmy Carter was uncertain about whether he wanted to appoint me to the federal judgeship. My client Richard Arrington contacted the White House and said he wouldn’t make up his mind about whom to support for the presidency between Ted Kennedy and Jimmy Carter until Jimmy Carter decided which person he would appoint to the first Black federal judgeship of Alabama. In a matter of days, the president made up his mind, and I became Alabama’s first Black federal judge.”

The AWAKEN ceremony began with a panel about voter access and civic engagement with Clemon, U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell, Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin and Ja’Nise Gentry, the Alabama director for Woke Vote. CBS 42 news anchor Sherri Jackson moderated the conversation.

As the discussion drew to a close, Jackson posed a final question to the group: What do you do to get people to vote?

“I would say the best thing that I would do when I’m in the streets is getting (people) to see the connection about why they vote. Most people will say ‘That’s the presidential election, that’s not really going to effect me.’ But I don’t think most people have even looked at the sample ballots that are out right now,” said Gentry. “There are Congress people that are out right now and senators on that ballot. And school board amendments that are on that ballot that affect them locally.”

“What I tell people all the time is that democracy is a participatory sport,” said Woodfin. “It was never designed for your mayor and your council to just do all the work. You have to have citizens doing your part. Part of that is voting.”

Sewell, the only Democrat in Alabama’s congressional delegation, also weighed in. She is seeking her eighth term and faces Republican Robin Litaker, the 1997 Alabama Teacher of the Year, in the Nov. 5 election.

“It’s frightening,” said Sewell. “The reality is that modern-day voter suppression is alive and well. It may not be the poll tax or the literacy test, but it’s no less pernicious. And we have to fight against that by doing what we can to vote. That means coming up with a voting plan.”