Faith and community leaders gathered together on Tuesday, Nov. 29, at First AME Church of Los Angeles, urging Councilmembers Gil Cedillo and Kevin de Leon to resign. 

At a press conference, religious, civil rights, and community leaders Laticia Mitchell, president of the Los Angeles NAACP, the Rev. K.W. Tulloss, president of the Baptist Ministers Conference of Los Angeles and Southern California, the Rev. S. T. Williams, pastor of St. Paul Lutheran Church in Los Angeles, among others, were present. 

Urging Councilmembers to Resign

Pastor J. Edgar Boyd, senior minister of First AME Church of Los Angeles, said in the conference that they showed up to add their collective tone to the call for Gil Cedillo and Kevin de León's resignation from office.

The Councilmembers are urged to quit and resign due to the racist and offensive comments they made about BIPOC and LGBTQ+ in Los Angeles. 

“You have shamed your constituents, you have disgraced the city of Los Angeles, you have outrightly attacked a colleague, a fellow member, with the racist references you made against him and his child,” Boyd said, as quoted by the Los Angeles Sentinel. 

The issue sparked demonstrations both outside and within City Hall, which ultimately led to Martinez and Herrera resigning from their positions in the city council. Despite the protests, Cedillo and De León are still in office. 

At the FAME Church, a gathering of religious and community leaders urged the members of the city council to do the right thing.

Meanwhile, Rev. William Smart, president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference of Southern California, said that there is negativity growing in the community across the U.S., and more specifically in Los Angeles.

He added that it is very crucial that they develop and go ahead in a community that is beloved by them, having people who comprehend that they are required to utter the appropriate things even when they are in private spaces, as per the report. 

Even after mentioning the fact that Kevin de Leon still had two years left on his contract, he insisted that the moment had come for him to step down. 

Smart went on to say that they cannot afford to continue forward with him on that City Council because they see the chaos that he has produced in his area, and they do not want to move forward with him anymore.

About First AME Church of Los Angeles

The First AME Church of Los Angeles is the oldest African American-founded church in the City of Angels. 

In the year 1872, a former slave Biddy Mason saw a vision from God instructing her to build a church that would minister to the mind, body, and soul of all those individuals who would join that little band of believers.

From that original inspiration and a small group of faithful, a church with over 19,000 members and dozens of ministries housed inside 13 organizations has grown, blessing and reaching tens of thousands of seekers in the Los Angeles area.

The First AME Church takes pride in being the "First To Serve" as it was established on the groundwork that was created by Bishop Richard Allen, who, in 1787, in the city of Philadelphia, began the movement that would later become the African Methodist Episcopal Church.