VoteAmerica: Today is First Ever National Black Voter Day

[National Black Voter Day]
Aisha McClendon: “VoteAmerica is excited to support the first-ever National Black Voter Day and to launch a nationwide effort urging people to check their voter registration status.”
Photo: YouTube

Did you know that today is the first-ever National Black Voter Day?

Join “VoteAmerica” for “Your Ballot, Your Voice” on Friday, September 18th highlighting the critical role Black voters will have in the 2020 election and beyond. VoteAmerica’s “Your Ballot, Your Voice” Zoom event starts at 12:00 PM ET (9:00 AM PT).

“VoteAmerica is excited to support the first-ever National Black Voter Day and to launch a nationwide effort urging people to check their voter registration status,” said Aisha McClendon, National Outreach Director for VoteAmerica. “We are also thrilled to host Rev. Dr. Robert Turner, Pastor of the Historic Vernon A.M.E. Church, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and other special guests for a ‘Your Ballot, Your Voice’ conversation about how much Black voices matter this election.”

VoteAmerica’s “Your Ballot, Your Voice” Zoom event starts at 12:00 PM ET (9:00 AM PT) with special guests Beto O’Rourke (D-TX), former Congressman, and Michael Sorrell, Paul Quinn College President, who will join VoteAmerica CEO and founder Debra Cleaver to discuss VoteAmerica’s National HBCU initiative to help student voters overcome obstacles and make their voices heard, giving viewers an advanced look at VoteAmerica’s plan to engage students on all 94 Historically Black Colleges and Universities.

VoteAmerica is also launching a major SMS text campaign in conjunction with National Black Voter Day to remind people to check their registration status. And they will discuss their forthcoming voter turnout efforts on all of the nation’s 94 Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs).

“As a proud daughter of Dillard University, I take this work very personally. For me and many others, our first time voting took place at college. Our program will educate, register, and empower nearly 300,000 students at all 94 HBCU campuses in the next 50 days,” McClendon said. “This is nothing short of amazing!”

The second half of the event, which begins at 12:30 PM ET and streams live here, will be a group discussion about empowering Black citizens against suppression tactics and ensuring their vote counts and their voices heard in the November election. The conversation will feature panelists including the aforementioned Reverend Robert Turner, Ra Shad Frazier-Gaines, Chief Strategy Officer of Amplify Action; Dr. Melanie Mullen, Director of Reconciliation, Justice & Creation Care, The Episcopal Church; Breana Wilson, Southern University Law Student; Michael Sorrell, President of Paul Quinn College; and Julian J. Walker, Actor, Author, Advocate, & Activist. Political strategist and commentator Jamal Simmons will moderate the panel discussion.

For more information on VoteAmerica or National Black Voter Day www.VoteAmerica.com.

VoteAmerica is a nonprofit organization founded by a small team of elections and technology experts including the founders of www.Vote.org and www.Vote.gov, who have come together to combat the chaos of the 2020 election cycle by helping to drive record-shattering voter turnout. Through targeted outreach, they will reach millions of low and no-propensity voters who are generally neglected by partisan groups.