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I’m a Young Black Activist in Georgia. I Don’t See Voting As the Only Answer

3Oct

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Journalism

I’m a Young Black Activist in Georgia. I Don’t See Voting As the Only Answer

I never thought about politics purely in the context of elections. When I was growing up in Georgia, my first exposure to inequity came through my lived experience of living in a majority Black area. My first exposure to fighting inequity came through reading books. I learned about the icons of Black grassroots organizing: civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., anti-rape activist Rosa Parks, workers rights champion Dorothy Bolden. What spoke to me was their commitment to door knocking, radical imagination, hard conversation, and deep care for people they had never met. To me, that looked like the most viable path to liberation. This history taught me that when discussing the role and impact of electoral politics for Black people, the context of community is paramount. It wasn’t unti...

Florida restricts recently restored voting rights to felons

Florida has the highest number of people who have been disenfranchised because of their criminal records, say campaigners. Voting rights activists in the US state of Florida say they have been forced backwards by a new amendment imposing restrictions on people with criminal records. More than a million convicted felons had their voting rights restored at the beginning of the year. But now thousands are struggling to get to the ballot box. Al Jazeera's Andy Gallacher reports from Miami.

Black women vow to be a powerful voting force again this year

Jamia Wilson is supremely proud of this fact: In 2008 and 2012, black women voted at a higher rate than any other group. Four years ago, 74 percent of eligible black women went to the polls — and 96 percent voted for President Obama. Some pollsters and pundits are betting against a three-peat of that level of turnout in this year’s election because Obama, whose historic campaign and presidency electrified black voters like never before, will not be on the ballot. Wilson and other black women active in politics are determined to prove them wrong. But they aren’t looking to the political candidates for inspiration. In interviews, they said the motivation to head to the ballot box will come from the energy generated by efforts to confront racism and other forms of economic and social inequa...