Updated April 9, 2026, 4:50 p.m. ET
- A Tallahassee pastor is calling on the community to wear white to a Leon County Commission meeting.
- The gesture is meant to support Commissioner Carolyn Cummings and other local Black female officials.
- The call to action follows a heated exchange between Cummings and County Attorney Chasity O’Steen, who is white.
The pastor of Tallahassee’s historic Bethel Missionary Baptist Church is asking the community to join him in wearing white to the upcoming Leon County Commission meeting, not only in honor of Commissioner Carolyn Cummings but other black women in local office.
On the Rev. Dr. R.B. Holmes, Jr.’s “Respect Yourself” radio show, live every Thursday from 2–3 p.m. on 95.3 FM, he spoke with Cummings’ aide Chauncy Haynes.
Holmes not only took the time on his show to speak on Cummings but a recurring pattern, first pointed out by City Commissioner Dianne Williams-Cox, impacting many woman of color locally and beyond. Both Williams-Cox and Cummings attend Bethel Missionary Baptist Church where Holmes preaches.
“We’ve elected in this community some outstanding African-American woman,” Holmes said as he proceeded to name Williams-Cox, Leon County Clerk of Courts Gwen Marshall, Circuit Judges Tiffany Baker-Carper and Barbara Hobbs, former Tallahassee Mayor Dot Inman-Johnson, the late County Commissioner Anita Davis, retired school board members Joy Bowen and Maggie Lewis-Butler and Leon County Tax Collector Doris Maloy.
A dispute between Cummings and County Attorney Chasity O’Steen has centered on dueling memos and letters over county hiring practices related to race, with the tension escalating into a public back-and-forth.
“We elected the best of the best. We elected these highly qualified black women and not one of them has embarrassed us. Not one of them have let us down,” he said.
He even spoke of the pushback and attacks faced by Vice President Kamala Harris and First Lady Michelle Obama in their day.
And more recently, Baker-Carper came under attack by Gov. Ron DeSantis and Attorney General James Uthmeier. They called for her impeachment because, they said, she improperly let a convicted sex offender remain free on bond before sentencing, and he was later linked to the killing of a 5-year-old girl.
“We must stand up for our women and that starts on Tuesday, standing up for Carolyn Cummings and standing up for Judge Baker(-Carper), you know, saying to the governor, you’re wrong to talk about impeaching her.”
At a February meeting, Cummings – herself an attorney – raised concerns about the demographic makeup of the county attorney’s office, as well as criteria used in selecting outside counsel. O’Steen said the office employs seven lawyers: Four white women and three white men, one of whom is new.
The two ended up in a heated exchange involving personal letters and emails. While O’Steen issued an apology that Cummings accepted, the damage had been done.
“It’s just almost impossible to accept in a positive (way) something that you know was a deliberate, premeditated attack on you as a person, on your morals, on your dignity, on your integrity,” the commissioner said at a recent meeting.
Arianna Otero is the trending and breaking news reporter for the Tallahassee Democrat. Contact her via email at AOtero@tallahassee.com and follow her on X: @ari_v_otero.
