Page 14 - Florida Sentinel 9-28-18

Midterm Elections
Urban League President Marc Morial Rallies Black Voters Across The Country And Talks Racism On Social Media
Marc Morial has seen race relations change from the days he was rocking an afro at __ University as an act of de- fiance, all the way to his tenure as Mayor of New Orleans and now as president of the Na- tional Urban League.
He recently sat down with theGrio in Washington, D. C. to talk about race relations today, and how getting historic voter turnout for the Black community again in 2018 and 2020 is his ultimate goal.
“What we need to do is vote with a vengeance,” Mor- ial told theGrio. “We need to channel our anger, we need to channel our passion, we need to channel our intentionality, we need to channel our hopes and aspirations for the future right into the ballot box and make a statement and send a message.”
Morial says, especially in states where Black candidates are running, Black voters should show up and show out to register others.
“You’ve got a large number of African-American women running, you’ve got people like Andrew Gillium. You’ve got people like Stacey Abrams. Andrew is 39, I think Sta- cie’s 44 or 45. You’ve got Ben Jealous who of course is in his 40s. You’ve got new voices, I am excited about those new
voices. I was an elected official first time I ran for office I ran for Democratic delegate–1984 I was 26 years old. When I got elected mayor I was 35, just about 35 or 36 years old. So I really think it’s exciting, that you’ve got new voices you’ve got good leadership that peo- ple can rally around and vote for and stand with.”
The National Urban League has launched a “Na- tional Urban League Voter En- gagement Campaign” and will host a four-city tour to rally voters in Cleveland (the week- end of October 4), Detroit (the weekend of October 11), Philadelphia (the weekend of October 18) and Atlanta (the weekend of October 25).
Marc Morial says the “n- word” was a fighting word when he grew up in Louisiana.
NAACP Calls On Black Voters Nationwide To Register 5 People And Get Them To The Polls
NAACP President Der- rick Johnson noted on the call that Black voter turnout traditionally drops off during midterm elections. For this reason, the organization is launching the Power of 5 campaign, which asks each person to register five people to vote and then get those five people to go with you to the polls. Just volunteering five minutes, five hours or five days on the “get out of the vote” efforts can make all the difference in voter turnout.
“There is too much at stake with these midterm elections,” Johnson said on the call. “Who will control re- districting — critical bound- aries which determines who gets elected. Also what’s at stake is what happens with Congress.”
Also joining the call was Chikesia Clemons, the young woman who was ar- rested at a Waffle House, in- spiring national protests over her treatment by police, and Tiffany D. Loftin, the Di- rector of the NAACP’s Youth & College Division.
“We celebrate the oppor- tunity of more young people getting involved. Social jus- tice is not a competition, it’s an opportunity to make Democracy work,” Johnson said.
The organization is asking
supporters across the country to text N-A-A-C-P to 40649, to join the Power of 5 cam- paign.
“This is not about one election,” Johnson said. “This is about building power for the African-American community.”
TheGrio also spoke to Johnson directly to find out what’s at stake for Black vot- ers in the midterms and how the evolution of the NAACP as it galvanizes millennial input to guarantee their longevity into the future.
On the NAACPs role in ensuring the Black commu- nity understands the signifi- cance of the Supreme Court pick:
“Our goal as the NAACP is to be a membership-based organization to ensure that our members and the African American community at- large are tuned in and edu- cated as relates to key milestones such as the nomi- nation of an individual to serve on the United States Supreme Court.
The confirmation of this nominee could impact the outcome of decisions for the next 30 years. Brett Ka- vanaugh is an individual who the NAACP opposed 12 years ago when he was nomi- nated to the D. C. Circuit Court because of his record and his views concerning major civil rights issues such as voting rights, housing pol- icy, education were concern- ing then. And they’re even more concerned now, consid- ering the potential magni- tude of the future of the Supreme Court and as it re- lates to civil rights issues.”
On the NAACP’s plan to increase voter engagement before the midterms:
“As we consider the cur- rent political climate,
African-Americans are ex- tremely concerned with the outcome of these elections and the tone that they are set- ting in terms of the political discourse. There has been a culture of intolerance and racial hatred set by the Presi- dent germinating directly out of the White House since the 2016 election. And, as a re- sult, we are finding African- Americans across the country responding accordingly.
Midterm elections are often the low watermark in terms of voter participation across all communities. It is our goal to keep voters en- gaged and informed so that we see this upcoming election in November the same way we would see a presidential election. Elections have con- sequences, and the conse- quence of the 2016 presidential elections created a negative tone for this coun- try. We want to reverse that tone by turning out in No- vember to ensure there are more checks and balance in the formation of public policy and that we can attend to a political climate.”
For the last five years, we see portraits of more young people being engaged actively and adding their voice to the political landscape; that’s a valuable opportunity for them to make history as a whole. We have brought in a young millennial who’s a part of the activist community, Tiffany Loftin, to work around her counterparts and support her counterparts so that we maintain a fertile and vibrant millennial voice.
Also, our plan is to con- tinue to build the young peo- ple who are coming behind the millennials and are now in high school, entering col- lege, and in college.”
On Wednesday night the NAACP hosted a “National Call to Ac- tion” in preparation for the highly anticipated midterm elections.
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