Ram Vishwanathan Photo
Smiles of pride discernible through their masks, Julian Lewis and Shawn Williams handed over forms Saturday to register to vote for the first time.
Lewis and Williams, both 18, showed up at a voter registration drive set up outside the government office building at 200 Orange St. in memory of the 55th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act. Passed in August 1965, the Act prohibits racial discrimination in voting, and marked a landmark moment in the Civil Rights
“Everybody in our past fought for our right to participate. If people don’t vote, we’re disrespecting that,” said Lewis.
Williams, who soon plans to join the army, was similarly passionate in affirming his desire to vote. “I don’t want to get pushed to the side by the president,” he said.
An acute awareness of history and the need to continue the work of Black activists in the past was palpable among all present Saturday. Michael Jefferson, the lead organizer of the event, said that the push to bring the Black community out to vote had to be contextualized in the ways in which it has been historically disenfranchised.
“It’s not just the 55th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act that we need to remember. It’s also the 150th anniversary of the 15th Amendment, which first allowed some Black men to vote, and the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote,” Jefferson stated. “These laws overturned a brutal era of voter suppression, and so many people died for this right. We can’t take that for granted.”
Jefferson (pictured), a member of the Kiyama movement as well as the local chapter of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity’s Chi Omicron, said that Saturday’s event focused on brining different community organizers together to meet each other, while also generated foot traffic for a voter registration drive.
The Kiyama movement has been organizing to bring Black men out to vote this election cycle. “Black men are the least likely to participate in electoral politics across all key demographics. And New Haven is no different,” Jefferson said.
In a state like Connecticut, where people of color have not had to deal with voter suppression as much as in other parts of the country, the onus os on the Black community to step out and vote, Jefferson argued. “We have so much power, and we can influence the process. It’s in your hand, you have the franchise.”
“In New Haven, the mayor selects the chief of police and the Board of Police Commissioners . That also means we can have our say in policing. And we can make sure that the powers-that-be respond effectively to a pandemic that is shredding our community,” he said.
Jefferson marked an all-action presence throughout the event, pausing during his interview with the Independent on multiple occasions — to hand over a set of forms, greet passers-by he recognized, or even warn that a baby was walking too close to the road. His initiative was also vital to bringing organizers from local fraternity networks to the event.
Marcellus Edwards, the head of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity’s Chi Omicron chapter, mentioned that his organization has set a target of registering to vote over a million Black men in time for the election in November. Edwards has been playing an active role in mobilizing his chapter to do its part in New Haven, and estimates that they have so far registered over 200 families to vote in weekend door-to-door campaigns. Edwards mentioned that they have been canvassing in Newhallville for several weeks, and had a lot of success during a campaign in Dwight neighborhood last Sunday. He also expressed his excitement at the chance to be able to share information and best practices with other groups present.
Like others present, Edwards reflected on historical legacies: “All sorts of hurdles and obstacles have been put in place, and people committed their lives to combatting them. It’s critical for organizations like mine to do step up and do what we can to make sure black men are part of the movement and the electoral process,” he said.
The New Haven Alumni chapter of the Phi Beta Sigma fraternity, headed by Derek Tompkins, was also present. Like their Omega Psi Phi counterparts, the fraternity has a national mandate to register participants to vote. Tompkins collected a stack of voter registration forms at the event, and planned to take his brothers canvassing the same day.
Tompkins, Edwards and Jefferson will not be alone in doing so. Lewis and Williams also promised to return home to convince their friends to vote, only 30 percent of whom they estimated are registered. “I’ll send them messages, and I’ll tell them when I see them at the basketball court,” said Lewis. “If they had the sheet in front of them, they’d sign up to vote for sure.”
Williams’ mother Valerie, who brought the two boys to the event, smiled and pointed to a stack of forms in her hand that she had collected at the event, ready for distribution.
Thank you to all the wonderful people working to get people registered to vote and getting out the word about the importance of voting, and the blood, sweat and tears of the many people who have fought and died for black people and women to have the right and access to voting. Many countries around the globe do not have free or fair elections for their rulers. You can exercise your power by voting, becoming a voter registrar, a poll worker, a candidate, a civil rights lawyer, a community organizer, and civil rights advocate. Can you imagine the world if all the people who didn't vote in the past, voted now? You could change the world.