Music can bring a community together.
Daniel Banks had that in mind when he volunteered his time and voice for a free community Christmas concert that benefited the local branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
The musical event took place at 6 p.m. Dec. 20 at Mount Canaan Missionary Baptist Church, and featured singing by Banks, who was accompanied by piano player Rick Roberts.
Attendees were encouraged to donate to help fund the NAACP Marion County’s future programming, including its education efforts marking the 60th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 becoming federal law.
Banks, a published author of books on local history, the chair of the Environmental and Climate Justice Committee for NAACP Marion County and an elder at Fort King Presbyterian Church, is passionate about selfless service.
“I really do love that word ‘community,’” he said. “We should all live together in peace.”
Banks brought a diverse group together to worship as one. Toward the start of the program, event attendees joined together in song to sing “Silent Night, Holy Night.” Banks, a gospel recording artist, performed Christmas songs from various cultures, including a Latin carol, a German Christmas song, a Bohemian carol and an African-American spiritual.
“The majority of the songs, probably five of the nine, my mother taught those songs to me when I was a child, such as ‘Adeste Fideles’ and ‘Good King Wenceslas,’” Banks said. “My mother sang and she played the piano as well. At Christmas time, she taught all of her children various Christmas carols, so some of the songs I remember from my childhood.”
Having traveled to countries in Europe, the Caribbean and North America, Banks feels it is important to bring diverse groups together in unity — a message shared throughout the Christmas concert.
“There was a cross section of the community present in the audience Saturday night,” Banks said. “They came because they like good singing and good music. They came because music is truly a universal language.”
Luzonia Waters, executive director of Childhood Development Services in Ocala, told the audience the main goal of the event was to bring people together to celebrate community and educate people on how to improve.
“Music has the power to unite and the power to uplift,” Waters said. “We are here to celebrate the power of coming together.”
Barbara Robinson, a lifetime member of the NAACP and an usher at Mount Canaan Missionary Baptist Church, served as greeter for the event.
“We enjoyed all the Christmas spirituals,” she said. “If you missed it, you missed a treat.”
The local branch of the NAACP, which was established 14 years after its parent organization was founded in 1909, is committed to pursuing the advancement of justice and education for all.
The Rev. Jerone Gamble, president of the local chapter, said the nation’s largest and oldest civil rights organization’s continued prioritization of education of voter rights is happening as part of the 60th anniversary of the Voting Rights Acts of 1965.
“Voting is the most important thing we have to do in the season of life,” Gamble said. “We have to advocate for equality and justice. People, talent and material, these all help provide the resources for us to do the work we do.”
Banks feels a sense of obligation to serve in the local NAACP as a grandson of Edward Daniel Davis Sr., a civil rights leader, former educator and member of the Florida Civil Rights Hall of Fame.
Among a long list of accomplishments — including serving as president of the state NAACP, leader of the Florida State Teachers Association and helping desegregate the University of Florida’s school of law in 1935 — Davis founded the Florida Voters League, an organization that worked to register Black voters in the 1960s.
Voter registration among Black Floridians increased from 40,000 to more than 300,000 in 1964 under the leadership of Davis and Harry T. Moore, founder the Progressive Voters League of Florida and the first NAACP branch in Brevard County, and a former president of the state NAACP.
“We fought so hard for voting rights before the Voting Rights Act came about in the 1960s, and my grandfather was fighting long before that,” Banks said. “My grandfather served two terms as president of the state NAACP and so I do feel an obligation to serve as much as I can to prevent the clock from turning back. I don’t think a lot of Black America realize the power of the Black vote, especially in my grandfather’s day. When there was segregation, most people voted as a block. If the candidate was attune to doing things to improve living conditions for Black people, generally, my grandfather would endorse that particular candidate and members of the Voters League would follow suit.”
On Dec. 1, the NAACP Marion County Branch celebrated Rosa Parks Day, which commemorated the 70th anniversary of the Montgomery Bus Boycott that made Parks a household name.
On that day in 1955, a tired Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat to a White passenger, leading to the 381-day boycott of the bus system in Montgomery, Alabama, and the U.S. Supreme Court ruling to desegregate public transportation.
Gamble said the organization celebrates and works to educate about the milestone so history is not lost. He also said it is a goal of the NAACP to get more young people involved in its efforts on both a local and national level.
Rosa Parks’ “courage changed the history of America,” Gamble said. “We have to teach the youth their actions can make an everlasting difference in culture and community. It’s all a part of helping them to understand the struggle that brings us to this point.”
Banks agreed.
“The youth are our future, so when the older members are gone, we’re gonna need a crop of new leaders to step forward with an understanding of how the NAACP represents minorities and disenfranchised groups on the national level,” he said.
Staff writer Brea Jones can be reached at 352-753-1119, ext. 5414, or brea.jones@thevillagesmedia.com.
