[1]Voting While Black

Dear John,

Almost 60 years ago, 4 Black students at North Carolina A&T State
University sat down at a whites-only Woolworth’s counter near their campus
in Greensboro, NC and refused to move.

These students sparked a mass movement of sit-ins in over 70 cities across
the South, and broke open the potential of youth to be leaders in the
Civil Rights movement.

Just this week, NC A&T students were at it again. They’re fighting voter
suppression on their campus by demanding an early voting site for their
over 12,000 students. The 2020 primary elections are scheduled during NC
A&T’s spring break, meaning many students will need to vote early in order
to be counted. But the early voting site that was on campus in past
elections was eliminated in 2018, meaning students have to walk over a
mile to the nearest site.^1

[ [link removed] ]Click here to chip in $1 to support Black student organizers like
sophomore Cole Riley, who started the petition (that's him testifying to
the Greensboro board of elections below!).

North Carolina has a history of Black voter suppression. District maps
drawn in 2011 were tossed after being proven to disadvantage Black voters.
But when Republicans redrew the maps in 2016, they split NC A&T’s campus
in two, meaning students who live on north campus have to register and
vote in a completely different place than those living on south campus.
This move diluted the voices of A&T students, dividing them between two
districts represented by white Republican state representatives.^2

But like the bold student organizers before them, A&T students are
refusing to stay silent in the face of injustice. We’re so proud of their
fight, and in 2020 we’ll be educating and organizing supporting students
like them nationwide to make sure they show up for elections and demand
elected leaders who care about them.

[ [link removed] ]Support Black students with us by donating $1 today.

Last year, we reached hundreds of Black students at Florida A&M,
Bethune-Cookman University, and NC A&T through our HBCU brunches. We
registered students to vote, gave them information about candidates in
their states, and decked them out in “Young, Black, and Voting” t-shirts.

But most importantly, we got them thinking about the power they have as
young people to change their communities. When Black youth get organized,
from sit-ins to voter suppression, they’re sending a message that they
expect to have a seat at the table, regardless of their age. This is their
world to shape, and they’re not going to sit back and wait for the
previous generation to hand it over.

To make the urgent change we need for Black people to thrive, we need
young people to be at the forefront. If you agree that young Black leaders
are essential to changing our world, click below to support them with $1
today.

[ [link removed] ]Support Black Students

Until justice is real,

Arisha, Jenni, Drew, Charles, Tammi, Daniel, Scott and the Color Of Change
PAC team

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Sources

 1. "North Carolina's extreme gerrymandering could save the House
Republican majority", Vox, 8 May
2018, [ [link removed] ][link removed]
 2. "Guilford elections board OKs 2 fewer sites for early voting in
November election", Greensboro News & Record, 10 July 2018,
[ [link removed] ][link removed]


 
Paid Pol. Adv. paid for by ColorOfChange PAC, 1714 Franklin St., Oakland, CA 94612, independently of and not authorized or approved by any federal, state, or local candidate or candidate’s committee.

Color Of Change PAC is building a movement to elevate the voices of Black folks and our allies, and win real social and political change. Contributions to Color Of Change PAC are not deductible as charitable contributions for federal income tax purposes.

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