Young Black lawyers’ group said suppression, other tactics threaten African Americans’ political power

BY STACY M. BROWN

A nonpartisan and community-centered movement reminiscent of the Freedom Riders of the civil rights era is on a mission to help Black communities resist and overcome voter suppression during the 2022 midterm election and beyond.

The Young Black Lawyers’ Organizing Coalition (YBLOC) said suppression and other tactics had threatened African Americans’ political power. “YBLOC is mobilizing one of the most ambitious voter protection organizing campaigns in history because inclusive democracy hangs in the balance in November,” said Abdul Dosunmu, YBLOC’s founder and chief strategist, during an appearance on the National Newspaper Publishers Association’s live morning news broadcast, Let It Be Known.

“Our intention is to proactively ready Black voters to do what we have always done: fight the barriers of voter suppression and insist on our right to be heard.”

The coalition has launched a “Black Ballots, Black Futures 2002 voter protection and organizing campaign.

Dosunmu isn’t a stranger to politics and mobilizing. An Obama administration appointee to the U.S. Department of Transportation, Dosunmu served as the department’s chief of staff advisor. He also worked as a senior associate at Precision Strategies, a digital, data, communications, and campaign management firm founded by three pioneers of President Barack Obama’s 2008 and among the most extensive Black-led voter education efforts to train Black vot ers to identify and resist voter suppression tactics to ensure their ballots are counted.

“These sessions aim to equip an estimated 60,000 Black voters with the information they need to protect their vote and help amplify this message in their communities,” Dosunmu stated.

The group has found success.

Earlier this year, YBLOC and a coalition of organizations representing the Black legal commu nity launched “Pass Her the Gavel,” a letter-writing and public engagement campaign that supported a fair confirmation process for Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson. Brown Jackson earned confirmation to the high court in April.

Additionally, as part of the ongoing grassroots ef fort to protect and empow er the Black electorate, YBLOC filed an amicus