I need you to watch that video before you read another word.
Not because I’m going to recap it. Not because I need you to catch up. But because what Pastor Howard John Wesley did from that pulpit at Alfred Street Baptist Church is something most people with a platform — including people who call themselves leaders — don’t have the courage to do.
This is Kenn Dowell. Cleveland born. Glenville raised. And never afraid to say what needs to be said. Before I get started shouts out to Roland Martin for bring this to light.
He named it. All of it.
The cowardly Congress. The scared Senate. The justices too afraid of presidential retaliation to use the power the people gave them. And then — right when the congregation was fired up and ready to point the finger outward — he turned the whole thing around and pointed it directly at us.
That took something. Real something. And I respect every word of it.But I’m not a preacher. I’m a political strategist. I’ve been in these rooms. I’ve worked these campaigns. I’ve sat across the table from the very people he’s talking about. So when I say what I’m about to say — understand it’s coming from somebody who has been inside this fight for a long time.
The sermon is true. And it’s not enough.
We’ve Known This. That’s the Problem.
Former Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson — the longest-serving mayor in the history of this city — used to say something I’ve carried with me for years:
“The problem is we have a problem. It’s not that we don’t know what the problems are; we’ve known those for years. It’s not that we don’t know what the solutions are; we’ve known those for years. The problem is we haven’t done anything about it.”
Read that again slowly.
We know who’s selling us out. We’ve known for years. We know that non-participation is betrayal. We know that celebrity is not leadership. We’ve been saying this since Malcolm said it — and Malcolm said it decades ago:
“Only in the Black community do we allow entertainers to be presented as political leaders when they are uninformed.”
Brother Malcolm said it. Mayor Jackson said it. Pastor Wesley just said it again — from the pulpit — with the whole congregation on their feet.
And here we are. Still having the same conversation.
So my question isn’t whether the sermon was right. It was. My question is: what are we going to do differently this time?
The Receipts Test
Pastor Wesley laid it out plain. If you don’t vote, you sold us out. If you sat home because you didn’t like either candidate — you sold us out. If the only time you showed up to the polls was to legalize marijuana — you sold us out.
I want to add one more layer to that.
If you’ve been using your platform, your celebrity, your name, your influence — and you haven’t poured anything back into this community — you don’t get to speak for it.
Not a check to an HBCU. Not a mentorship. Not a single young person you pulled up behind you. Not one organization you supported when there was nothing in it for your brand.
No Receipts. No Mic.
And before we put all the weight on entertainers — let’s be equally honest about the elected officials who know what’s wrong and say nothing. The people in positions of power who go along to get along because they’re afraid of what happens if they don’t. They are just as responsible. Wesley called them out too.
The betrayal isn’t only coming from outside. A lot of it is coming from the silence inside.
Looking like us is not the same as being for us. And 2026 is not the year to keep letting that confusion slide.
Civic Courage Is Not a Sermon Topic. It’s an Operating Requirement.
We are in an election year. The Voting Rights Act has been weakened. States are moving fast. The people who claim to represent Black America are lining up to cash checks while the infrastructure burns around them.
This is the year your voice has to be louder than your silence. This is the year the receipts get checked.
So I need you to do three things right now.
One — watch that video again and share it. Send it to somebody in your circle who’s been sitting on the sidelines telling themselves their vote doesn’t matter.
Two — tune in this Tuesday to Strategic Moves Radio on WOVU 95.9 FM, noon to 1 PM. Me and Dr. Heather Burton are going to break this down live — who has the receipts, who’s been misrepresenting us, and what civic courage actually looks like when the cameras aren’t rolling.
Three — subscribe to this Substack if you haven’t already. This is where the conversation goes deeper than the show can go in sixty minutes. Share this post with somebody who needs to hear it today.
A sermon can convict you. But strategy is what moves you.
It’s time to move.
“Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you too can become great that’s why it’s hard to be big when little gotcha.”
Kenn Dowell
Great Article!! And Pastor Wesley was BULLSEYE!!