Making 'Black Voters Matter' in the Deep South
LaTosha Brown, co-founder of the Black Voters Matter Fund, often breaks out into song when she speaks to a crowd. Two weeks ago, she kicked off a bus ride from Jackson into the Mississippi Delta with a rendition of "Eyes on the Prize." Other passengers joined her, but Brown's raspy voice rose to the top.
Brown and co-founder Cliff Albright had recently come from a Georgia community that was then at risk to lose seven out of nine voting precincts in a majority-black county near Alabama. Brown, and those on her tour, contributed to the public pushback that kept those polling places open.
The bus is a moving advertisement, with images of black people holding up the Black Power fist above the tour's title. Brown sees the bus as a "connector" because it belongs to the people, not a candidate, and sends a message of empowerment.
With the exception of Albright, a photographer and a local reporter, everyone on the bus was a woman, and mainly African American—a contingency of the population Brown has become a firebrand for organizing. Brown gained national attention when she led the Alabama Grassroots Mobilization Project to get the vote out in 18 counties last December during the special election to fill Jeff Sessions' seat. The results were outstanding: 96 percent of black voters supported Doug Jones, with 98 percent of black women and 93 percent of black men backing him.
Read more: http://www.jacksonfreepress.com/news/2018/sep/05/making-black-voters-matter-deep-south/
Cross-posted in the Southern Democrats and Progressives Group.
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