As we marked MLK Day this week, I found myself thinking a lot about my experience organizing in the South. I have family roots in Mississippi and my path as an organizer over the last two decades has taken me back to those roots, as well as through Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Tennessee and South Carolina.
The legacy of heroes like Dr. King and the entire civil rights movement shape and fuel community organizing work today. Their memories and their lessons continue to inspire and motivate me.
My passion for organizing in the South and deep appreciation for Dr. King’s work to organize against injustice and to fight for voting rights evolved during my three campaigns in Georgia. I’ll never forget sitting in the heritage sanctuary at the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church during the 2016 presidential election, where I sought tranquility and inspiration a month out from Election day. As I sat in the same spaces where Dr. King and so many others came together in community, I felt meaningfully connected to the past and the present. I felt similarly rooted when organizing took me to Alabama in 2017, when I helped send Doug Jones to the U.S. Senate - the first Democrat the state elected to that role in 20+ years.
I felt Dr. King’s presence in Alabama and Mississippi as much as I did in Georgia. I visited Dr. King’s Statue at Kelly Ingram Park in Birmingham and walked across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma - the site of Bloody Sunday. In 2018, I was in Mississippi working on Mike Espy’s campaign for the U.S. Senate and our election day office was right next to the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum. There I read about the “Tougaloo Nine'' and the students’ fight to desegregate public libraries. There is always more to learn. And when I returned to Georgia in 2020 for the Biden-Harris team and two Senate runoffs, I came across a mural in Castleberry Hill featuring Dr. King’s likeness and the message “Vote Again” - a sentiment that captures the reality of our work - every day is election day.
Our work of organizing in the South is surrounded by the stories and history of hyper-local community organizing that we seek to continue in our present day electoral fights. The connections between our history and how we act today were on my mind this week, as I thought about what it means to celebrate Dr. King’s life and work. I thought about the people whose names I’ll never know who fought and died for me to have the right to vote today. I thought about how they deserve more than tributes and emails like this– they deserve action.
Unfortunately, last night the Senate failed to act. They failed to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act & the Freedom to Vote Act, which embody the freedoms that Dr. King and other civil rights leaders dedicated their lives to. I know how disheartened and disappointed and angry we feel today. But this fight isn't over. Congress didn't act, but we will.
As the organizers before me have taught: Whether you win or lose today, you wake up tomorrow and keep organizing. That's the only way change happens. So I'm ready to keep fighting.
Are you with me? Instantly add your name here.
In honor of the incredible organizers, activists, leaders, and voters – past and present – who have inspired, encouraged, and paved my way, I’m urging you to stay in the fight and continue organizing for the advancements of voting rights in this country. Will you join me?
-Tracey