Jay Nixon announced today that he will be visiting a pair of African-American churches on Sunday - including one that could raise eyebrows at City Hall.

Nixon will also have a special guest with him - former Missouri Supreme Court Chief Justice Ronnie White.

Nominally, the stops are to gin up turnout for Tuesday’s presidential primary.

But, as State Sen. Maida Coleman recently suggested, Nixon may still have some fence-mending to do among black voters.

Nixon raised the ire of many local African-Americans when, in his first term as attorney general, he called for phasing out the state’s financial role in the St. Louis desegregation program.

White - the state’s first African-American supreme court judge - could help Nixon dispel any lingering mistrust.

Nixon, who will be accompanied by his wife and kids, will start the morning off at the Pleasant Grove Baptist Church in the Ville. Then, they’ll head to the Community Church of God in Black Jack, the same congregation Lacy Clay spoke at this past Sunday.

That’s also the same congregation led by the Rev. Douglas Parham, a leading critic of Mayor Francis Slay.

I wonder what Slay thinks of the fact that Nixon - out of all the churches holding services on Sunday - chose the one where the preacher has been most vocal about removing Slay from office.