“Historically, we’ve always had to address the attacks on our rights and our freedoms, and that’s where we are,” Melanie Campbell, president of the National Coalition for Black Civic Participation, tells theGrio.
As the nation commemorates Juneteenth as a federal holiday for the third year, leaders are vowing to fight against a rising tide of efforts to suppress some of the very freedoms the Black community has fought so hard to secure.
President Joe Biden, during last week’s star-studded White House concert commemorating Juneteenth, which he signed into law as a federal holiday in 2021, lamented: “As the past few years remind us, our freedoms have been put at risk by racism that’s still too powerful a force.”
Vice President Kamala Harris similarly called out legislative attempts to weaken civil rights like access to voting, reproductive health and “the freedom to learn our country’s history in full.”
Civil rights leaders and advocates share the same concerns for the freedoms of Black Americans, and are collectively organizing a new targeted effort in the South to push back against what they see as a deliberate movement to suppress the power of Black voters.
Earlier this month, several organizations and community leaders gathered in Atlanta, Georgia for a rare convening to discuss a range of concerns impacting Black and brown communities, from the banning of books about the history of racism in the United States to a wave of restrictive voting laws they say make it harder for Black and brown Americans to vote.
“Historically, we’ve always had to address the attacks on our rights and our freedoms, and that’s where we are,” said Melanie Campbell, president of the National Coalition for Black Civic Participation (NCBC).
NCBC held its inaugural southern organizing leadership convening at Clark Atlanta University with a theme of “Power of the Ballot, the Buck and the Book” – inspired by the words of John Wesley Dobbs, the father of Campbell’s late mentor, former Atlanta mayor Maynard Jackson.
“[He] coined that phrase … as three-key components to really bringing Black Americans into opportunities and have a better quality of life,” she explained.
Advocates and leaders have grown more concerned about the ability of Black Americans to access freedoms secured by their forefathers and foremothers as a result of decades-long organizing and activism.
“The attacks that are impacting us are around the power of the vote, and all that goes with that, [like] partisan gerrymandering and redistricting and all the things that impact our ability to really let us elect candidates of choice,” said Campbell. “When you talk about critical race theory, banning books — and in some cases, attacks on HBCUs — all that has an impact on us.”
Cliff Albright, co-founder of Black Voters Matter, told theGrio that every barrier raised against the Black community, from abortion and voting rights to the conservative movement against so-called critical race theory in schools, has been birthed in the South and then expanded across the country.
“What starts in the South doesn’t just stay in the South,” said Albright, who pointed out to the Dobbs v. Jackson case in Mississippi that overturned federal abortion protections, and the origin of the anti-CRT movement in Texas that “gained momentum” in Florida.
Albright argued that in order to push against attacks on Black freedoms, there must be more time, money and resources put into the South as the 2024 election cycle begins. As an example of what can happen when there’s intentional organizing in the South, he noted that despite Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ reelection in November 2022, Jacksonville saw an upset win in the mayoral race in March, handing the city its first Democratic mayor in more than a decade.
“Our organization, Black Voters Matter, was working with local groups in Jacksonville,” said Albright. “Even in Florida, things can happen when there’s the right amount of support and investment.”
Campbell said that while the 2024 elections for president and Congress are important, there must be a focused target on local elections. “The state legislature is really the new battlefield where change has to happen,” she told theGrio. “That’s why you have the ability for the states to adopt these rules against … banning books [and] overriding local [government] where we have strong representation when it comes to Black elected officials.”
The coalition builder said plainly, “The south is in play,” as racial demographics are rising in states like Texas, Georgia and North Carolina.
“Look what happened in Georgia in 2020. Look what happened in Georgia in 2022,” said Campbell. “Part of that is preparing for the 2024 elections.”
Albright said that despite the victories in recent years, including former Senator Doug Jones’s win in Alabama in 2017, and signs of opportunity to expand them, “we’ve seen already people will write off the South.”
Outreach in the South, he said, “can’t wait until 2024 or 2025 when there’s a new Congress.”
“We need to continue to raise this issue right now,” he added. “Even though we know what the makeup of Congress is, we need to continue to demand voting rights legislation because we can’t just sit back and say, ‘Well, we’re just gonna wait until things are more favorable.’”
Acknowledging the right to vote as the fundamental right above all others, Albright said Black leaders are still demanding that members of Congress pass the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act and Freedom to Vote Act, which would restore the Voting Rights Act and expand voting rights protections.
According to election data, turnout for Black voters has steadily declined over the past several years. Advocates say part of that is a result of the wave of laws restricting access to voting in the South.
“You can’t have the wave of voter suppression that swept the country in ’21 and not have any federal legislation and then ask people to out-organize the voter suppression and think that’s not gonna impact turnout,” said Albright.
He added, “The real story isn’t that turnout went down in places. The real story is how in the world didn’t it go down even more, considering the levels of attacks on voting that were taking place all across the country.”
While activists and leaders wait for more progress from elected officials in Washington to safeguard the freedoms of Black Americans, they say they won’t relent from their boots-on-the-ground efforts.
“The people who have been able to do this never stop organizing around their agenda,” said Campbell. “And we have to be just as strategic, if not more.”
Gerren Keith Gaynor is a White House Correspondent and the Managing Editor of Politics at theGrio. He is based in Washington, D.C.
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