Coming from a small town it was tough to dream big. When I grew up in a small town in Georgia, my biggest dream was one day to be able to go to Atlanta. - Herschel Walker
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July 24 - 30, 2014
Volume 86 • Issue 50
The New Georgia Project Wants More Minority Voters
By Terry Shropshire The thought of “what could have been” should be enough to make minorities shudder where they stand. Had just a few more people stayed home from the voting booths, Sen. John F. Kennedy would not have become president in 1960. The much more conservative Vice President Richard M. Nixon would have succeeded the outgoing Dwight Eisenhower. The closest election in American history literally came down to just a few votes, relatively speaking. How would having Nixon in the White House, instead of the Kennedy brothers, have impacted the world-changing Civil Rights Movement lead by Dr. Martin Luther King? Would Nixon have been as supportive of minorities’ fight for equality and justice as Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy was? Would Nixon have had the intestinal fortitude and political will to push through the Civil Rights Bill — which was so unpopular in the Deep South — that the Kennedys championed? And remember, there would have been no Lyndon Johnson to succeed JFK and usher the Civil Rights Bill into law in 1964). Would we even have a Voting Rights Act that we enjoy today? Fifty years after the landmark Civil Rights Bill of 1964, the state of Georgia and the entire nation is on the precipice of another historic crossroads; voters can greatly alter the political complexion of the Peach State for decades to come with their individual votes. Yet, there are over 800,000 unregistered minority citizens in Georgia alone (blacks, Hispanics and Asians), according to the U.S. Department of Commerce and the Census Bureau. Voting complacency has compelled state representative and House Minority Leader Stacy Abrams to chair the New Georgia Project, and join forces with Ebenezer Baptist Church senior pastor Dr. Raphael G. Warnock, in an effort to illumi-
nate the monumental importance that their vote can and will have on the future in Georgia. “The right to vote and the access to the ballot is basic to the promise of democracy,” said Warnock, who preaches from the same pulpit that Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Sr. also preached from. “Without the vote, we have nothing because the vote is preservative of all the other rights.” As leader in the House of Representatives, Abrams was not surprised by the vast pool of unregistered voters. She is focused on getting more Georgia residents registered. And, just as importantly, she knows why so many minorities do not vote. “The reality is that of those who have not registered to vote in this day and age, there is usually a very serious reason or reasons for that. They are either intimidated by the process of voting; they have heard about voter suppression so that they are afraid to vote, or they don’t see why voting matters,” Abrams explained. “They have lived lives that have not been changed by elections, [and] their lives didn’t change any by either administration. So there is a disenfranchisement from engagement because you just don’t think that it matters.” The New Georgia Project is designed to infuse electricity and energy into the potential electorate so that they may have more of a say in the state’s destiny. The New Georgia Project is a non-partisan, non-profit organization solely focused on registering individuals to vote, specifically those in the most disadvantaged and underserved groups in Georgia. An even more recent example of how a few votes initiated drastic decisions that America is still living with today, is found in President Obama’s predecessor, “The vote absolutely counts. That’s true of the Kennedy election. But also the reason why in 2000, you had the George W. Bush-Al Gore fiasco was because the election was so close.
Had there been a few more to turn out in Florida and a few other places that whole scenario could have played out differently. For the last 15 years, that history could have played out very differently. Decisions have been made, both foreign and domestic, because of our vote.” Abrams said civic, political and religious leaders need to conjoin to help “demystify” the voting process that was so commonplace and routine in previous generations. The black church is a prime example of how to maximize the process with access to vast captive audiences that can be educated about voting and work to register voters. “I think that the religious community, just like many other organizations, has an obligation and an opportunity. One of the things that they could do is to actually set up booths and allow people to come into the church to vote,” Abrams explained. “They can request booths so they can, after Sunday service, practice voting and understand it. They can pass out voter registration cards along with the plate. We have to go beyond the four doors of the church. Those [potential] voters are not going to come to us. We have to go after the voters we want.” Yes, black Atlantans live a newer and more complex world that can sometimes seem taxing. But just envision how much harder life would be without the Civil Rights Bill and the Voting Rights Act and other liberties that are too often taken for granted. “I remind our congregants all the time that our ballot is a blood-stained ballot. And the cost was too great, the fight was too long, the sacrifices were too important to not think of that,” Warnock said. “We intend over next several weeks to register thousands of new voters. Literally the direction of Georgia rests in the hands of people who are often marginalized.”