The Real Power Behind Randall Woodfin

Post #13 of #20: I am reflecting on twenty years of personal and professional experiences in Birmingham and beyond. Visit www.medium.com/HonestlyEd to read my full #20For20 series.

My twenty-year journey in Birmingham has been an awesome exploration of leadership and power. Some of my experiences have been intimate, intense and, at times, the revelations have been shocking.

Indeed, we are a city with a 150-year-old complicated relationship with power, especially at City Hall.

But, power is not what it appears to be. People with titles and organizations such as CEOs, activists, pastors, and other leaders are not moving the masses of people in Birmingham. They certainly do represent segments of people, but too few are doing the hard work of organizing people and tapping into their true power potential.

This is the story of two women without organizations or titles who represent the masses of people who are starving for contact, engagement and representation in ways that are more traditional than progressive.

My experience with Carol and Phyllis represent one of the bright spots in my career in terms of civic engagement and leadership. I don’t want to stop doing this work until you see what I see, even if you see it differently.

Believe it or not.

Meet Carol Hatcher

Have you ever met someone for the first time yet found them totally familiar all at once? That is how I felt when Carol Hatcher first walked into the campaign headquarters of Birmingham mayoral candidate, Randall Woodfin, on a Saturday in June 2017.

Carol carried a strong, fearless presence upon her arrival. Small, yet sturdy, she would come into our tiny campaign headquarters each weekend and energize our staff and volunteers alike with her big personality. She has served as a volunteer in every Birmingham mayoral campaign since Dr. Arrington’s first run in 1979 — her very first campaign.

Interestingly, Carol didn’t know Randall at all. She only heard about him, knocking on doors and winning people one-by-one, day-by-day for nearly a year at that point.

Carol would canvass neighborhoods and return to the office as if she walked in for the first time that day. No sweat and no worries. Just doing the work of advocating for her city. At times, it felt as if she wasn’t even there for the campaign. It felt like she was there for Birmingham.

Meet Phyllis Kelsey Green

Phyllis heard about Randall, visited the website and signed up for a volunteer shift to knock on doors. She didn’t know him, but she knew the city. She was a longtime volunteer and surrogate mother to youths and families in the Gate City public housing community. Phyllis, affectionately known as “Ma Phyllis”, was in Gate City long before Randall decided to run for Mayor.

One day Phyllis returned to our campaign headquarters after canvassing and told me she was paired up with an older African-American gentlemen in his sixties. He was formerly incarcerated and was happy to be canvassing for the Mayor, but he had expressed concern about knocking on doors after dark in Gate City. She chuckled and challenged him to keep going.

These women — Carol and Phyllis — were unafraid of the communities they served. They loved Birmingham before our campaign existed. Then, they paired up to go knock on doors together. The rest is folklore.

Carol and Phyllis

Carol and Phyllis canvassed so much and so often that they begin to exceed the lists we gave them.

One day they arrived very early for a 10:00 am canvass shift. I let them know we needed more time to prepare their canvass list. They laughed and let me know they were just stopping by to take a break because they were already out at 6:30 am knocking on doors and talking to residents on their own — without our packets.

Woodfin campaigns are highly disciplined data and field operations, just ask Daniel Deriso. We discourage volunteers making untargeted contact with residents. But, Carol and Phyllis’ goal was to go above and beyond our standards and engage people as often as they could.

They were leading their own movement. These women from two different parts of town with two different backgrounds found one another inside of the Woodfin campaign. But, the campaign could not contain them, only harness their energy.

Leaders don’t create movements, they create the circumstances for movements to bloom. And, when leadership eventually emerges inside a movement the founders should create room for rising leaders to influence others. Equip them. Give them resources. And, listen to them and instead of inviting them to sit at our table, we should be pulling chairs up to their tables, centering and privileging their voices.

Real Power

Let’s talk about power. Not executive, judicial, or legislative powers; those powers are derivative and downstream from the source. I am more interested in a power that is naturally endowed and enduring. A power that serves as humanity’s greatest predictor of success and failure, prominence and ruin.

I am speaking of the source power of belief — the original technology of faith, ingenuity and leadership.

Carol and Phyllis are prototypical, but they are not the only source of power behind the Woodfin era of grassroots campaigning. I have personally witnessed dozens upon dozens of these pairings and partnerships. They are justice involved, entrepreneurs, elders, high school students, women’s advocates, immigrant and every single persuasion and complexion you can imagine.

After all, we knocked on over 50,000 doors in 2017 and have exceeded 75,000 doors so far in 2021. This does not include the doors Mayor Woodfin knocked on while he was governing, utilizing the door-to-door canvass as a new communication channel for the City of Birmingham to reach residents.

This is not to brag, this is simply to say that there has never been a civic platform designed to connect our residents like the Woodfin for Mayor campaigns.

These relationships and this power of belief in one another -- not just a politician — is the bedrock of all we do. I believe these relationships can survive our political moment and movement.

By the way, Carol and Phyllis never stopped knocking on doors since 2017. They have continued to visit Gate City every week for the past four years.

Communities that see radical progress are communities that have unexpectedly strong social ties, in common (third spaces) as well as uncommon spaces. These relationships will not prevent the virus of hate and sabotage we currently see in our politics, but they can vaccinate us, increasing our odds of resilience through major challenges like civil unrest, economic turmoil and COVID-19.

Book Recommendation: Why the Garden Club Couldn’t Save Youngstown

When a few people in relationship with one another begin to believe and act upon the same objective the affect is not linear, it is exponential.

Randall Woodfin is the embodiment of servant leadership because he sits at the bottom — not the top — of a pyramid of relationships like Carol and Phyllis. We stand on his shoulders, lifting each other as we climb and ensuring the promise of opportunity for the next leaders rising all around us.

Our generation’s legacy will not be building or tearing down monuments of the past. Our legacy will be building on ramps to the future through the conviction of the love betwixt us.

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” — Margaret Mead

Ed Fields is a marketer and strategist celebrating 20 years in Birmingham with #20For20 — a series of reflections, insights and homages. All posts are featured at www.medium.com/HonestlyEd. Follow Ed on LinkedIn, Medium, Instagram or Twitter.