Sybil Wilkes: A Divine 9 Leadership Roundtable — Voter Motivation & Activation Strategy

Ladies and gentlemen welcome to a divine nine leadership round table history is being made it’s for the first time all presidents of the black greek sororities and fraternities are coming together for a united front to inform empower and activate our community for this upcoming election season nine organizations nine leaders one voice

Hosted by news and media maven sybil wilkes with discussions led by alpha phi alpha fraternity incorporated general president dr everett b ward phd alpha kappa alpha sorority incorporated international president dr glenda baskin glover kappa alpha psi fraternity incorporated gran polamar reuben a shelton iii esquire omega stop five fraternity incorporated grand basilisk

Dr david marion delta sigma theta sorority incorporated national president and ceo beverly e smith phi beta sigma fraternity incorporated international president michael e crystal zeta phi beta sorority incorporated international president valerie hollingsworth baker sigma gamma rho sorority incorporated international grand basilisk rashida liberty iota phi theta fraternity incorporated international grand polaris

Andre r manson with special appearances by roland martin eona van zandt d.o hughley kim whitley anthony brown selena johnson m.c light and ashley bell and now ladies and gentlemen please welcome my friend and one of the smartest women i know sybil wills He wrote that he read that just as i wrote it thank you so much john murray i appreciate that uh ladies and gentlemen welcome welcome welcome welcome seven weeks from today is november 3rd it’s election day and we are here today a historic gathering at a time of great consequence to our future

Nine of the greatest leaders of our time have come here to talk strategy and create an action plan for the next seven weeks and beyond i dare say the divine nine living up to their name the presidents of the black sororities and fraternities are calling on our community to join in

Their efforts to strategize educate motivate and activate welcome welcome welcome say let us say hello to the president of alpha phi alpha fraternity incorporated dr everett ward president and chief executive officer of alpha kappa alpha sorority incorporated dr glinda baskin glover grant paul mark of kappa alpha psi fraternity incorporated ruben shelton esquire

President of omega sci-fi fraternity incorporated dr david marion the president of delta sigma theta sorority incorporated the honorable beverly smith president of phi beta sigma fraternity incorporated the honorable michael crystal president of zeta phi beta sorority incorporated the honorable valerie hollingsworth baker and congratulations by the way president of sigma gamma rose sorority

Incorporated the honorable rashida liberty and congratulations to you too and the grand polaris of iota phi theta fraternity incorporated the honorable andre manson welcome to all and thank you all so much for being a part of this historic gathering before we get started i’d like to talk to uh those of us those

Of us who are watching this afternoon and into the evening uh and uh and don’t they know that you are in the middle of making history right now with that goal going on it’s a reminder that the 2020 u.s census is still underway there’s still time to be

Counted although there are challenges to the end date it’s currently scheduled to end september 30th as i said there are challenges and lawsuits that are there that are going on now there are three ways we remind you to participate in the 2020 census number one is online at 2020census.gov iphone 844 330 2020

Or you can do it the old-fashioned way complete that paper questionnaire and mail it in a reminder of just a few of the important areas that could be lost if we are not all counted our children our children could be denied funding for schools and programs very important programs

Like head start lunch programs and health insurance programs don’t forget about the money that will be designated for transportation roads and bridges it not only means improvements but jobs for people who work on those improvements to make that happen and as we prepare to vote a reminder that states could lose representatives

In congress if we do not stand up and be counted please go to 2020census.gov gov for more information i would like to uh talk to you uh john murray uh we uh i’m sorry get getting a little ahead of ourselves um this is all started as a result

Of an opportunity that i had to uh talk to all of the leaders of these divine organizations uh a few months ago and um this was a part of our newsletter it’s called what you need to know and it is as tom joyner has taught us

Uh very well that we are here to super serve the african-american community he got that from his mentor mr john h johnson and so with that in mind every day we strive to put together news items that are really important to the african-american community and of course

We are talking a lot every day about politics and of course about the upcoming election and uh the what you need to know newsletter is something that i have a very small crew of people but we go big and we go hard every day to bring the news to our communities

And i would like for my friend john murray to come in and talk a little bit about that as well civil wars is what you need to know is a for us by us newsletter keeping us informed empowered and educated every day if you just sign up the newsletter is giving you

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With what you need to know i’m john murray and i approve this message i approve of you john murray i thank you so much once again for all your support as we are taking on this this great project and uh this has been a labor of great love and very little

Uh sleep as far as uh are doing the what you need to know newsletter we have been uh working for uh just under a year and uh my my merry band and group of women and gentlemen uh have been so instrumental in making this a success so i thank you all

Uh for that we are here ladies and gentlemen to talk about the nine-point plan we are going to be talking about a variety of topics uh all have to do in some form or fashion with our voting we will talk about voter registration early voting the mail-in ballot and how

We can help our senior voters election day voting and especially talking about it in the age of the covet 19 pandemic working and volunteering at the polls voter suppression and legal resources that are available we’re going to talk about the down ballot races what does that mean

Well there’s more than one office that we are focusing on in these elections we will talk about those races that are down the ballot activating hbcu voters and how do we do that and black lives matter we’ll talk about that also uh marching to the polls and the racial strife

That we are undergoing and as we have talked about in the what you need to know newsletter as recently as this week black men and voting they are a very very special uh voting block that uh donald trump really uh did very well with in 2016

And uh you black men they want you well so do us black women but i digress so let us uh go into a word from our uh friends and uh and these are some people these are my friends your friends and their people that you will recognize as they represent their fraternities and

Sororities hi i’m m.c light a proud member of sigma gamma rose sorority incorporated i am reminding all of my sorrows to make sure that you your family friends and co-workers are registered to vote hey everybody you’re actually jazzy brown a proud member of five beta sigma incorporated i’m asking everybody to vote early

As early as you can and help somebody old to the pole now they’re gonna be doing a lot of talking and they’re not gonna chipping on the gas watch out there now hey it is me dl hugley a very very proud member of omega sci-fi fraternity incorporated and i’m asking everybody imploring everybody

Begging everybody to please remember to vote your vote is so very important this year do not forget to vote so thank you guys i appreciate your participating and representing so well and we are going to start off uh with president liberty and president shelton and we’re going to talk about voter

Registration if i could just remind uh our presidents and i do this with all due respect if you are not speaking to uh mute your your is there as we go through this but let’s start with you president liberty and talk about what your organization is doing to encourage voter registration so

Stephen gamma row specifically has partnered with a number of organizations but one specifically that we are really working closely with and that’s when we all vote and many of our divine eye organizations have also taken on this um leadership mode as far as launching with this group this

Group was launched by michelle obama in 2018 with several colleagues and really around we have a third of qualified voters who are not registered and so we understand that the task is big and so our partnership is around that um for our divine nine partners we all

Understand that we need to engage in a voting process beyond a social media post really nudging a spouse or a friend this is really about stretching our common circle so not the people we know but those neighbors a disengaged family member or even a co-worker who may not really see the

Importance of really taking the first step and to me that first step really is registering to vote so naacp rock the vote and other national registration day efforts really is what sydney yamaro has been behind and even to stretch it even further because we are on here as a divine nine

Collective i want to talk a little bit about what sigma gamma rho is doing with our partners so we do have a partnership with iota phi theta fraternity which is called more than much more than a hashtag and that initiative has been in play beyond just this particular election year

But for a long-standing relationship between us we all start with project game over we have a whole group of collegiates that need to get engaged they’ve never voted that age group of 18 to 22 or so they haven’t really been involved in the general election and so we are partnering with project

Game over 2020 a project really started by kappa brother tracy mcmillan to really engage those particular people um in eight key states in registering voters uh does anyone uh thank you uh very much president at liberty and so uh just to kind of throw this out and throw this out there

For others who would like to participate uh but but especially looking at you grant paul mark of uh kappa alpha psi fraternity uh reuben shelton uh what about you and in terms of what your organization is doing yeah thank you sibyl so in in addition to working with all of our divine nine

Colleagues and partners uh you know who are all doing some really really wonderful things and in addition to asking and tasking every chapter in the fraternity to con doc you know we also have partnered with uh the organization when we all vote and they have provided us with some tremendous resources so

Kappa has agreed to focus on a couple of their target cities uh philadelphia and phoenix and we’re going to employ brothers to do a really deep dive into the communities in those cities and ramp up voter registration and turnout as well but additionally we are asking for every chapter in a fraternity to

Register at least at least 10 individuals during the national voter registration week which is september 20 through the 27th also individual members are encouraged to promote voter registration by posting a picture of themselves with their voter registration card and using the hashtag uh kappa men vote now

This hopefully and and and and the goal is to serve as a visible demonstration of the power of the black mailboat on all social media platforms so uh we’re all into this civil uh ladies and gentlemen let’s talk and and if anyone wants to talk about this and i think you

Have talked about this uh president liberty but a lot of the young people that are voting for the first time but had you any of you identified specific challenges among your members in their attempts to register or to get others in their community to register to vote

Typically the way we have approached it in our organization is the rig the biggest challenges around covet right 20 2019 that has really plagued our communities when it comes to voter registration um because we can’t touch and feel those people so what we have said is that it

Is important for us to engage in our civic duty meaning the things that we typically do whether it’s going to the hairdresser engaging at the grocery store we have a we are encouraged to ask those people that we work with on a regular basis and touch and feel

Are you even registered to vote right and do you have a way to um can i give you that app if we download the app there’s an app called outvote where we can actually target those contacts in our cell phone that are tied to us and we can see how often they

Vote are they a frequent voter infrequent voter are never registered and through that out vote app you’re able to really touch and feel those people who are closest to you and also in those circles in a safe environment as we deal with this covant environment gotcha gotcha uh what about any of the

Other leaders here have you all directly had any challenges or or ways to to work around especially as as president liberty has said in terms of working around the the challenge of the pandemic yeah we certainly have that one uh civil but you know the main challenge that we see year in

Uh you know election cycle in an election cycle out is the lack of knowledge and and really logistical support especially for our more senior members it it it’s the inability to get the places where they can register or the knowledge of how they can do it online where where that is allowed

Um it’s interesting that i just received a message from credit karma which is uh which is the the credit score reporting site uh advertising a smooth and seamless way to register the vote and there are other other things that we need to uh get out to the community to our brothers

And all the communities that we serve it’s that type of information we need to get to the folks who need it so that they are armed with the knowledge of of how to register to vote one of the interesting things is is that you all uh the history of your organizations and

You have uh of course you know going through uh the generations of members that you have and so uh you have those that have lived through uh who are over the age of 70 and beyond and live through a number of important parts of our history including

Uh jim crow segregation and the the assassinations of malcolm x and martin luther king and and of course the the election of our first african-american president and now uh here we are with the administration of donald trump uh they have seen firsthand uh a lot of these historical events that have shaped

Our nation and so how does your organization how does your organization uh use the wisdom and experience of some of your older members and your seasoned members uh to to pass on some of this information to to your youngans to the younger members of your organizations anyone i’d like to speak to that

I i can speak to that for sigma gamma rho specifically we have a rich culture what we call our culture pearls and these are more senior members and elders of our organization we engage them on social media we engage them in webinars and trainings all the way not only from the alumni

Level but all the way down to our undergraduates and our youth groups because they have to start even at that youth level for a rower club we have to make sure that they’re starting to see what that process looks like we’ve ramped up with telling them about

The election season using them in forums on history of voting as well as explaining what the electoral college mean a lot of people don’t even know that basic tenant when it comes down to voting and the biggest thing is using those voices in the stories as you stated or why we vote

We not only vote in presidential elections but why it’s even important for us to vote on a local level which i know we’ll be addressing later on in this call absolutely i think that we’re giving people a lot of good uh information here and talking about voter registration uh and if

And also i’m hoping that our viewers are chiming in with their observations and and perhaps even some questions as we go along here um let’s talk about uh the uh the issue of early voting uh and and and what that looks like because lord knows we’re getting a lot of different information uh

Uh sources aren’t we and and folks are telling us that the the mail-in ballot is not working and it’s going to uh lead to some uh to some challenges when it comes to counting our votes as well as uh disruptions in the postal system and so

Let us go and and talk about this and um and and president crystal um let’s talk about early voting and and and how are you talking to your members about the basics of about early voting how to vote early how to um to get information on that mail-in ballot or to submit

Your request for a mail-in ballot how is that discussion going president crystal unmute [Laughter] president crystal if we could just get you to unmute and uh then uh start your your response okay um let president crystal can you hear us can you hear me yes yes can you hear me

Yes okay we can now so and it was on me so what about that about getting people to vote early and also about submitting the the request for the mail-in ballot how how are you all dealing with that yeah you know first of all very excited

To be here this evening with my dna and colleagues and you know to your point you know less than 50 days out and um you know early voting is one of the options that’s available uh when you think about uh how do you connect with our members

How do we connect with the community my thought of that is initially wow let’s go to our website within our respective state go on the secretary of state’s website here within the state of arizona early voting starts on october the 7th and so it’s a huge opportunity for all

Of our members to go there advance within our communities for the opportunity uh to deliver and you know when you think about early voting uh and particularly when you think about it in this cold environment um the opportunity for safety the opportunity to plan uh you know the election is uh november

The 3rd uh october the 7th here in arizona between that window of time uh you’ve got an opportunity to plan for that um november third comes who knows what you could be doing uh but also when you get past just the early voting and you start thinking about the mail invalid

You know there’s a whole lot been in the news that’s a whole lot been happening in that regard and there’s a tremendous amount of websites that are available one of the ones that i would ask the listeners to just kind of write this one down because it’s just a tremendous amount of

Information and that is iwillvote.com iwillvote.com you know when you go to that site uh very easy to operate but it provides good insight around male in balance uh it walks through the entire process whether you want to request a ballot online uh if you want to

Request a ballot uh via email if you want to request a ballot to be mailed to you and then it walks through the entire process and so when you think about safety particularly in this covet environment many of our members many within the community probably will want to look at that

Particular opportunity uh it gives you great clarity is the part that i want to call out because if you think about what 45 has been doing the last few weeks there’s been just a tremendous amount of confusion a tremendous amount of chaos around how do you do male imbalance if there’s

Safety legalities around it that particular wealth site gives great clarity around it i would strongly encourage uh our members strongly encourage the community uh to dial into that regard in terms of uh zeta phi beta sorority uh and uh president valerie hollingsworth baker uh how are you seeing this and are

You finding any challenges there in terms of getting the word out well good evening and i would like to say we we in zeta five days are already incorporated we’re working to get the word out of course you know with kovic as it is you know there’s a little there are challenges

But we find that we’re going right into our communities we are having our webinars we’re having our town hall meetings we’re making sure that we bring our partners on to these calls to these webinars so that they can talk about the what the challenges are

That will that we face and what we can do about them we’re also very interested uh with a vote from abroad which is um an organization that we partner with because we we know that there are many of us right here that need to vote but there’s so many of us that live

Abroad over 2.9 million and with that we are also partnering with vote from aboard to make sure that citizens will be able to get their ballots early be able to mail them and be able to mail them to where they should be mailed to and that this organization will help to um

Spread the word uh give us more information on tracking make sure that you’ll be able to get your ballot to where it’s supposed to be and we’ve found that that to be very helpful for those abroad because we have to think about those as well as what we’re thinking about at

Home because like i said over 2.9 million we need all the votes we can we can count on and we will count on those as well um and this is for for uh anyone who would like to talk about this but uh staying with uh uh doctor and professor uh staying with

President crystal and president baker um what about uh concerns about uh the the elderly as we talk about our older members and um are there any other options that are being offered to them uh amongst your membership uh in terms of taking that absentee ballot and perhaps taking it

To the uh boxes yourself on behalf of your members and and other options that maybe you’re making available to them you know um and you said this kind of at the beginning when you talked to um reuben and with uh rasheeda uh we have a tremendous amount of our

Members that are in a higher age bracket uh and so collaboration with our members are critical uh partnering up chapters and members on making sure that support we learned a lot of that even when we were in the midst of the uh virus early on uh this summer

But there’s also a tremendous amount of resources that are available uh to our members as well um when you particularly when you think about the male invalid and getting that level of comfort for our members but the things that we’ve been calling out that we think are most important

Is really looking to make sure uh as we go through that melon ballot process uh understanding the form collaborating with our members uh creating an event around it where we’re providing the support uh utilizing uh our peer groups uh to help drive that expectation as well uh but also calling out agencies like

Our aging and disability resource centers that are critical within the community uh you think about uh whether it’s early voting or mail-in there’s an opportunity for partnerships when the seniors go to the polling place uh make sure that they know that they can vote in private

And they can ask for support uh make sure they know when they’re in the ballot box that poll workers have been trained to partner up with them and being courageous enough to ask for some type of support and so the biggest thing is raising the awareness in advance and

Then creating that level of collaboration as they’re partnering up at the ballot box thank you so much for that i think that uh this is a really great concern um especially for uh our elderly and i know that uh a lot of us are are looking towards

Our parents and and even in some cases our grandparents aunts and uncles uh in terms of how do we best help them uh to to make their votes count to get to the polls to get to make sure that their their ballot gets in and gets counted uh this is uh

This is a just such a crucial time and and and our efforts as we are helping our elderly as well as our youngins uh to get out to the polls and it’s a great collaboration that you all are endeavoring uh let’s talk about election day voting and um and especially

In terms of uh what is going on uh in the day of uh covet 19. of course news reports to expect long lines long hours waiting uh times on on election day and concerns about coronavirus are not expected to go anywhere anytime soon and so let’s talk to you president

Marion and what specific steps is your organization taking to support voters on election day it felt seven weeks from today well we’re going to do some of the same things that that some of the other organizations are doing um we’re telling people to come and pack your lunch

I mean it’s going to be a long a long time that you’re going to be there come and vote early it’s going to be very important many of our chapters are going to provide water provide sanitizer uh provide face mask and those kinds of things to kind of help

With that we know that every election uh as i have lived on this planet we’ve heard that this is the most important election of your life and so we understand that uh while we may have said that before this one is certainly consequential we know we saw in 2016 that elections have consequences

So we know what’s at stake and so we’re encouraging everyone to get out to vote because we understand that while voting started we’ll start in seven states this week for the most part most people are going to vote in person and we understand that uh the slogan

Voters if your life depends on it but during a pandemic you have to vote uh as if your life may end with this vote uh if you don’t come out and and practice the uh measures that have been suggested to us uh by the cdc and uh by the surgeon general and

And so forth and so it’s important that if we went out and we marched uh for beyond a taylor if we march for ahmad our berry if we march for george floyd it’s important that we march to the polls on november 3rd and and vote like we’ve never voted before

So much at stake and i think it’s just exciting to see this talk about uh voting um and all of the things that we know they’re at stake right now and so we’re pushing people in every way we know how to get out and vote this november 3rd

If they don’t get a chance to vote early we’re also telling people to check to see if they’re registered because we know there’s been a lot of purging of the polls we’re also telling people to check to make certain their polling station is still where it was when they left it

Because we saw that in kentucky for example there were over 3 700 polling locations but a couple of months ago it was less than 200 so it’s very important that you know where to vote and and and that when you vote i think is also important to go as early as you can

So those are the kinds of things manson let’s talk about uh the fellas the gentleman excuse me of iota phi theta fraternity and uh how are you preparing your members to vote on election day uh have you devised a checklist as it were um and and all of the things that uh

That we may find necessary to take on that day sure uh so but we are looking at different programs uh we’re making sure that we are educating and informing our members as much as possible through webinars and other means of our social on who that was social uh uh uh

Media and also asking him not to just concentrate on our members but also our inner circles because of course this covert thing affects everyone and so we’re asking brothers and everyone to pack your patience be prepared that things will not go as smooth as you would want them to be

Uh letting them to also know that uh they’re gonna be some people there that will try your patience uh we’re going to ask members to carry extra mask make sure your cell phones are completely charged before you go uh make sure that someone knows when you’re going to go vote so that you’re

You know so you have that tree of communication between you all so we’re trying to again inform our members and inform others around as much as possible because again you can never have enough information not based off let’s talk to you again there uh dr marion about the the fear of

Of covet 19. uh are you finding or are you having conversations with people maybe not even your members but people around you who are fearful of going to the polls uh because of the coronavirus and how are you assuaging those fears i i don’t think that would be anything

Unusual to to see that that’s that’s a natural reaction to a pandemic when you see almost 200 000 uh people who have died because of covet 19 uh then we know this is a very uh serious uh uh virus that we’re dealing with um the the leaders that you see lead

Organizations where we’ve lost many members uh due to covet 19 um and so it’s a serious matter when you talk about this but also voting is serious yeah and so when we talk about um many of our grandparents and great-grandparents and others who have died

For the right to vote when we look at the many extremes that people go through uh to stop us from voting in 1890 for example in the state of mississippi over 100 white men gathered in the capitol for a constitutional convention and the main directive that came out of

That constitutional direction was to devise a plan to stop black men from voting and so when you have that kind of um seriousness about stopping the vote many i talked to believe that even covet 19 is being used in ways to prevent us from voting so certainly people are scared

But i think if they adhere to the requirements that we hear uh wearing a face mask social distancing um um come with sanitizer again those are the kinds of things that chapters in omega are going to provide to the folks standing in line come with your lawn chair uh come with your medication

Come with something you’re going to be there a while you know what i mean because folks are trying to stop you from voting and hope that you’ll be intimidated and just say forget it uh we can’t afford to do that in this election and and i dare to say uh

Dr marion that uh all the folks that fought so hard and gave their lives for us to vote uh this is an opportunity for us to step up and to take on that challenge as well uh because this is a life or death situation as well um let us move to uh working

And volunteering at the polls this is a big question uh in terms of uh the the necessity of this um and we’re going to uh talk about that and first we have a word from my friends they’re gonna talk and get and these are folks from of course as as we said before

Uh folks who are members of your illustrious organizations hi i’m selena johnson proud member of zeta phi beta sorority incorporated and i’m encouraging you to learn about volunteering and working the polls hi i’m kim whitley a proud member of delta sigma theta sorority incorporated bo i am here to remind you that the

Down ballot races are vital now make sure that you are educated on the candidates and the issues in your community yeah i said that real strong doesn’t that make you so proud president smith we’re going to talk about working and volunteering at the polls and so uh

Let us go to uh uh president baker and talk about that uh and and talk about what seniors have played a a very big part in working our polls uh working on election day and it’s a it’s a job that doesn’t pay much if anything uh but with this particularly uh within

The age of the coronavirus and the danger that it poses to older americans there’s a concern that our polling places may be underserved as we have seen through the primary season a lot of of the older volunteers and and poll workers are chosen not to work this year and so that

Is just has made the long the lines even longer it’s made the weights and the delays uh in getting folks through the polling uh process through the electoral process and so uh let’s talk with you president baker and ask you is your organization doing anything to address the issue of providing or

Recruiting workers to the um i’m sorry that is president hollingsworth baker i’m sorry uh is your organization doing anything to address the issue of providing or recruiting workers for the polling places thank you simple that’s not a problem i’m glad that you asked that question because xenophobia sorority incorporated has encouraged its members

And affiliates to volunteer to serve as cold war workers in their respective communities by sharing resources on how to sign up and work on and work on the polls and even though we know that uh age-old that we’ve always had poll watchers and poll workers that were

More senior i hope that that’s going to be uh that would be difficult so what we’re doing we’re we we want to you know make sure that we level those risks for our seniors and then find another way to uh engage others to become poll watchers so we’ve appealed to our undergraduates to

Encourage them to become actively involved in our democracy by serving as poll watchers and recently zeta promoted information that we received from fair election center who are partners with uh work elections and power the polls and the campus vote project who’s seeking to recruit uh over 120 college students

To serve as work election fellows on college because we want to target a number of key battleground states and joining in with this organization we’re able to promote this with our undergraduates as well as though and and make sure that we get them engaged as well as our graduate members that will be

Able to go out as we encourage them to sign up to to to help out that the polls we have to step our pace up and we’re making sure that we have our as i said our meetings our our city meetings our chapter meetings our uh our uh town hall meetings that we’re

Engaging with our members to make sure that they understand that they now have to take up the mantle where our seniors have left off and they’re going to have to make sure that they sign up so we have places that we uh we’re giving them information where they need to go

So that they can sign up or they can definitely sign up online and we are following them for each chapter and i’m asking that each chapter at least try to get not only your undergraduate that are that will become involved but we will get some of our graduate members at least two

From each chapter to go to their polls to to make sure that they have signed up so that they can be a help you know it’s it’s just amazing that everything has a season and as uh duties and and familial duties as well as your civic duties

Uh usually happen in a season and now uh during the age of coronavirus it’s kind of being sped up but it’s it’s the natural way i think where the the older and and and more seasoned and knowledgeable officials will pass their knowledge onto to our young people

And as we encourage them to get involved uh we have uh justices on feet on facebook and and says that uh the naacp is looking for poll volunteers and you can go to naacp.org engage as well uh president smith what can i talk to you about as a community what can we

Do to support the polling places and especially in our towns where we know that african americans comprised a significant presence at the pulse uh dr marion talked about kentucky uh and there are you know that was particularly uh impactful to see those people who have been uh pushed out of their polling places

But what can we do to support these polling places and and talk about uh the towns where we know that the african-american presence is especially high you know it’s it’s really critical that we are there uh at those polling places and working i used to chair the board of elections in my county

And it’s uh that’s one thing you can do i will say that although it was the governor’s appointee but participating in the process behind the scenes uh when i chaired that board i realized as soon as i got on that in terms of the poll workers and the people who volunteer for elections

Uh in my county well in every county it appears as though less than one percent of the people who work polls and minorities and even less than that are younger people i mean seniors retired seniors work the polls because they’ve got time and the pay is level if any and so

When i try to you know focus on you know what what’s going on where where are the black folks because here’s what happens when you go to a poll or when you go any place you want to see someone who looks like you and when there is fear and concern about

Voting when our voters especially some of those seniors walk in and see all faces that don’t look like them there’s an immediate distrust that comes up even whether you want it to be or not it’s an automatic because of the world that we live in working the polls and being there gives

A comfort level to those who are voting to be there and to know that others can vote those absentee ballots are counted by volunteers those ballots where you don’t pull in the circle completely or you put an x or you do something wrong and they can’t go through the machines those are volunteers

That are actually working to in most in a lot of states to look at those and make some decisions on and they usually have representatives or parties but the assurance to make sure that we’re there and looking at and participating in the process behind the scenes

And at the polling places also gives us some reassurance of what’s happening because those poll workers are trained they get a chance to see the operation behind the scenes so in addition to being a face that you can see and represent as you kind of look at each other here i am hearing

You can also uh know what’s happening behind the scenes so there’s some assurance in terms of how that happens for our younger folks it’s an opportunity to see the voting process in action for the rest of us who are able to do that and work and it takes some time off to

Try and do that if you possibly can it gives you an opportunity to see that and provide that assurance and also know what’s happening with it uh the process for voting and for making sure you’re working we’re doing something similar to sora hollingsworth baker in terms of making sure our young folks

Get involved in the process our collegiates i’m so proud of our second vice president regional reps just did a video that i uh previewed and approved yesterday so that our collegiate members are posting videos to try and tell you please go out and be a poll worker

Some of the process they’re using we know that naacp is looking for them we’re all looking to make sure we’re there uh poll monitors election judges as they call them in some states uh there to make sure things happen properly are critically important so working the polls is not just sitting

Behind that counter necessarily it really is also monitoring the process in terms of what happened to make sure that things are fair we have a responsibility to be in those seats to make sure things are fair because we can play that role and we need not to shy away from that because

It takes volunteer time for us from something else we could be doing if we aren’t going to be doing this sooner or later we won’t be doing a lot of things and so we’ve got to be out front of it wow put it out there that’s the truth and uh shane that devil

Um also folks are uh still giving us suggestions and and information uh those of you on youtube and facebook we thank you delphine hirsch is on facebook and she says that poll workers are needed in the cities of philadelphia detroit and milwaukee as examples uh and and certainly those are key

States ladies and gentlemen uh we’re talking about pennsylvania michigan and wisconsin look at me knowing my state’s there um but it is uh those are key states that uh there’s going to be a lot of business uh a lot of activity at the polling places on those days and so

Uh i thank you so much for that defeat and i appreciate your participating in that um let’s talk about who man this is a topic that uh uh we could go on and probably do a whole nother show on as well uh but voter suppression and the the legal resources

That are available and um going to uh our attorney our uh in the house uh let’s go to a dr glover and and and this is one of the most uh obviously i mean it it bears saying and repeating uh but it goes without saying oftentimes

That this is one of the most contentious election seasons of our lifetime and uh as a result those who seek to make it more difficult for our community to vote so how dr glover is your organization addressing issues of voter suppression and barriers to keep people from being able to vote

Well good evening thank you you are so correct voter protection is so key this year we want to ensure that all voters have an equal opportunity to vote and have that vote count we have to protect and defend the right to vote so that includes the voter registration that includes absolute ballot early

Voting voting by mail and voting election day uh so as we know uh we believe that election suppression vote intimidation they’re just some are more notorious than others some of the most notorious methods are the vote id requirements when uh the suppressed the vote of people

Who are people of color those who don’t have a post don’t have an address they have a post office box so you know we have some things that are some things that are specifically designed uh or at least have the appearance of designing to affect people of color more so without the

Capital has done we have partnered with the national bar association with their uh election protection initiative and we’re working we put out a call for all the lawyers uh in alpha kappa alpha so we had um 800 to almost a thousand i believe that are signed that have answered that

Call so we plan to be uh on site to make sure that uh the votes are indeed protected because in addition to the id requirements that they there are some voters that from the voter purge role purges when you cut in your name is no longer on the road and they

They use the excuse that we’re trying to remove um duplicate names or remove those have been deceased but it largely affects people of color and then the closure of polling places you go to your polling place has been closed uh or there’s it’s been combined somewhere else so

Um a recent poll uh a study usa today found that the election officials have closed thousands of polling places and it largely affects people of color so we know the notorious methodologies that are being employed and then one that is the god mother of all is the provisional ballot requirement when you

Go to the poll and there’s no your your name’s not on the is not on the road and they give you provisional ballot you know federal laws dictate that if you don’t have if your name is on the road you have to get a provisional balance

You can still vote until and it’s held in may until uh this counter and you know once it’s confirmed but you’re in fact eligible but localities set their own rules and regulations which means they can count as many as they want to they can use as many as they want to

So lawyers have to be on board to make sure i mean you know just to be there and observe be ready to file an injunction they close the the the door early you have 50 people standing in line somebody should be there ready to style it already we work with nact

And the reverend jerry young with the the national baptist convention we they have it’s already set up all you do is just fill it in go down and file it um when they reduce the hours of you know instead of coming in like staying open to seven

They may say we’ll close at six tonight i mean so all of these are voter suppression uh methodologies and so and then the the areas where uh in florida particularly we don’t have we know how contentious is going to be in florida florida has this um you know

The felons the convicted fellows who now have a right to vote and they’re trying to make sure that well i can’t say i’m making sure but there’s a right now they have to pay a fine to register to vote now you know what that what does that sound like anything

To you that makes it remember we couldn’t vote until we passed a little to test right how many bubbles are in the tub so now it’s coming back here to have money to pay a fine to register both so that’s when there are 18 states that that have this that have this this

Process so so the lawyers that need to do all of that but everything is not that has to be a lawyer honestly it can be anybody who has the the who wants to sit there and help but you know on a certain person going to the court and do certain things

But the lawyer says the national bar has had this for years and we’ve been working with the with the senior hospital the president of the national bar i mean it’s it’s it’s an amazing opportunity to get out there and protect this vote this election has to be protected

Let’s talk to your fellow attorney grant paul mark of uh kappa alpha psi reuben shelton uh certainly this is no uh a as it’s been said um this is uh a a lot of the things that everything old is new again and we talked about this in

The what you need to know newsletter uh about this particular case in it there’s over 800 000 former felons who have been denied the right to vote again by the appellate judge uh the appellate uh system and uh the justices said no and agreed with the republicans

Until they pay for uh these fines and court fees and so let’s talk to you attorney shelton and and about uh if someone suspects that uh their ability to vote is being blocked uh what’s your what’s your best advice counselor yeah you know poll tax that’s all i can say

We’re doing it again i mean this is a maddening critical issue because it is hard to believe that 150 years after passage of the 15th amendment we are still dealing with this voter suppression issue uh it’s unbelievable um but a lot of the things that my fellow presidents have said earlier

Actually apply to what we’re talking about now but if someone suspects that their ability to vote is being improperly blocked there are there are some things that you should that you can do um the lawyers committee for civil rights under the law they have an uh a toll-free number that you can

That you can call 866 our vote it’s actually eight six six six eight seven eight six eight three uh also you know great minds uh president glover uh i’m meeting with the national bar association president tomorrow morning to talk about uh their election protection program and and kappa is going to be

Fully on board with that as well um but also you know we we believe that um that we need to arm people with weapons and and the weapons that we’re going to arm them with is information so we’re partnering with groups like march on voter protection court you know

We’re encouraging members in the community to be proactive and learn their rights uh under the law ahead of time and i i know that’s asking a lot for for a lot of people i understand that but to the extent that you can go in knowing what your rights

Are uh there’s a a a website called we are march on dot dot org also in kappa we are using a book that’s called the flipping book f-l-i-p-p-i-n-g and that is a resource for a proactive planning process and it it details all of the laws for the 50 states in the united states

But also um there are local organizations that that are that you can resource when you’re having problems at the polls right and and you know one huge problem that we don’t talk about a lot is voter intimidation you know voter intimidation you know where where you got uh you know

Folks that don’t like us very much they’re sitting out in the parking lots or they’re walking around in front of the poles and you know legal distance but they are still trying to intimidate voters from coming in and voting and and that is that is happening a lot

And as president smith said it is so very important to have people who are working those polling places um because they’re the ones that are going to be the watchdogs for us and when they see something is wrong they can actually assist in uh in correcting anything that’s happening at the resource but

You know local organizations uh like the mound city bar association in st louis uh they’re doing an election protection thing um and of course the naacp um you know these are all things that uh these are all numbers that we should have on speed dial so that when we get

To the election site and something goes wrong uh we can call them up and and get this thing started and and just as we close on this particular topic uh grandpa mark uh do you guys or do you your does your organization provide a list of these numbers and

And and are these being made available to your members as well yes absolutely absolutely absolutely and we’re relying on our members in each chapter across the nation to make sure that in in their voter registration and and voting election drives uh that they are supplying that information

To uh members of the community that they serve and we want to encourage them to call that that hotline number uh because when early voting has already started and michigan has been in five states this week and so there’s a lot of misinformation uh that’s being told and there are

Several complaints already filed not just lawsuits but complaints it’s not that level yet but there are 22 states that the national buyers identified as the worst in early voting and they have various tactics and so i mean we see that we know things about balance being in the middle of the highway

Or somebody’s drawing so those kinds of things with the makeshift regard against from the early voting process that the rule is that we’re to protect about the 15th amendment and we’re to protect this right to vote exactly that’s right forewarned is forearmed and let us move on thank you so much for

That information and moving on to talk about the the down ballot races president smith uh can you explain to people as as as an election official uh about a down ballot voting and and talk about the the importance and uh the ramifications of down ballot voting voting uh throughout the entire ballot

Absolutely civil thank you for the question and you know sir kim whitley said it well when she says you gotta get down and get those down balance voted down voting is voting the entire ballot uh from the federal to the state to the local and typically that ballot is by party

Now i tell you there’s some interesting statistics on this republicans tend to vote a straight party ticket and when they register they they vote the entire ballot democrats on the other hand typically based on the research they have vote and fall off after the major elections they don’t they don’t vote down ballot

They don’t make sure that uh that happens now i have to tell you this past sunday uh a good alpha man uh reverend of freddie haynes uh who i go to on sundays at friendship west in texas said something on sunday that really i think tied to this topic he said we

Live in an era when your life expectancy is not determined by a genetic code the buyer zip came in now think about that for a moment but that’s so true it’s not only true for the census we talked about but if you don’t do down ballot voting you’re not taking care

Of those local elections and quite frankly your life expectancy will be determined by your zip code and not your genetic code uh all politics are local and i think we need to understand how important it is to make sure that what happens in your local elections affects your daily life

Uh local candidates uh affect the quality of your life in terms of engaging what you do in your communities uh that’s a day-to-day thing uh the people that will elect in those seats for congressional seats that makes a huge difference for us in terms of the presidency and those elections are obviously critically

Important but if there is not a good con congress behind who’s elected as you know things get stifled and we see that every day voters have to make sure they’re doing research on every candidate in every race particularly in judges in terms of what happens there especially right now when so many of

Them are up for election delta sigma theta has been holding a lot of virtual candidate forms and inviting a mix of candidates because we have to make sure they’re all at least represented to talk to constituency but knowing uh who a candidate is extremely important to not leave that ballot locally blank

I know when we had our primaries here i did a lot of research looking in the paper going online uh looking to see what the candidate is for what they supported how they looked all those kind of things to make sure we understand it uh the other thing about local elections

And making sure that we get empowered in our communities is that we have to make sure that it’s an opportunity for those that are interested in being in politics to get a chance to get the experience at that local level you’re preparing for that election and you’re running

Your community and running a community makes a huge difference in terms of what happens so that training is extremely important you know one of the things that we’re doing at delta we recently announced a new 501c4 so that we can in fact uh endorse candidates but one of the

Other things we’re doing is training people to run for office because that’s important you got to be at that table you know shirley chisholm said if you know don’t have a seat at the table you know pull up a folding chair but making sure that we’re engaged in

The local elections not only by voting but being represented and being at the table uh at the same time is critically important don’t just stop at that top election look down that ballot see who else is running get educated about who’s running because that makes a difference

In the community where the the main focus of what happens in your lives every day is going to happen absolutely and and president liberty i know that uh you and the the ladies of sigma gamma rule sorority uh incorporated are also uh in involved in that discussion as well and talking

Uh a little bit more if you could talk about uh the importance of encouraging our citizens to get involved in those local races and they say well i don’t care who’s president uh well but you there is something you care about there is an issue there’s something on your street there’s something

Around the corner uh that is not right and you want to make a change in that uh are you having those discussions present at liberty yes we are having those discussions and i believe one of the things that is really key there is making sure that you take

The discussions down to a real level and when i say a real level is having those conversations not only with our members but those around the community that semi-yamaro actually engages with i believe my members are definitely going to vote and understand the importance of down voting

But what we’re trying to do is do more outreach to those who may not understand the person who says that from a local judge do you understand that who you vote as a local judge or put in those offices determines whether or not you go to jail

Or what your sentence is for a driver’s license violation do you understand that your council member makes decisions that impact you on whether or not sometimes whether you wear a mask or whether you’re required to wear a mask during covet school board members when it comes to your child’s education being an organization

Founded on the principle of education we know the importance of making sure that our children are educated and sowing into that generation but there’s members we vote those people in and then something that really hits home i believe for all of us holistically if we look at what just happened

With george floyd with brianna taylor we waited on prosecutors to make decisions who determines who those prosecutors are who determines who that police chief is who determines who the head of the state highway patrol is we do we own those decisions that’s why it’s important for us to so

Locally and for us to educate our members as well as like i said our general community to understand that these are the things that hit home i’m not just going to tell you to vote down the ballot i’m going to give you the reasons why um president liberty staying with you uh

In in terms of uh educating our our people um do you provide the opportunity to talk about some of these issues with people in the community in terms of um perhaps not suggestions but to talk as you have done but to talk one-on-one or in a group setting about the importance because certainly

This has been an incredible civics lesson for for our communities uh in seeing as you mentioned about brianna taylor and about george floyd and and ahmad arberry who was uh you know uh killed by people who were involved with the police department um talking about these issues with our

People in in our young people especially are we having those discussions and talking about the difference that can be made with people who are in those positions these are active discussions that we’re having and as this new administration kicked off because i’m just 45 days in office

As this new administration kicked off we we fell right into we got to get this voter engagement up and so with that we have planned a series of different webinars and workshops and forums we’re inviting personalities in some heavy hitters because we have to hit some of our people through entertainment

In some ways if you know what i mean right these forums are great it’s the divine nine but sometimes we have to bring some voices and some power from communities that we wouldn’t expect to speak to our young people and so we are bringing some things like that in these next 40 days

As we lead to the election to bring that to the forefront we all start giving our um members communication through our weekly communications about their secretary of state websites as well as how to vote necessarily how to vote but where they find their actual local ballot so that they can study the candidates

That’s so important and and we have to just keep uh keeping that information and and and even when we think that people know it doesn’t hurt to be reminded right absolutely as as we talk about this it is uh we’re going to take a time out and

Uh we’re going to hear some from some more of the illustrious members of your fraternities and sororities and my good friends greetings beloveds i am ian lavan zant a proud member of the alpha kappa alpha sorority incorporated and i am reminding all of my hbcu families to get out and vote

Because you matter your vote matters hey pam roland martin here life member of alpha phi alpha fraternity incorporated for the last 31 years and listen we all know that black lives matter we all must go to the polls which means that we must do our part

To make sure that your vote counts so go to vote.org to make sure you have not been purged if you have not registered you can do so there as well plus you can fill out the census all in one stop you’ve got one vote so use it

Hi i’m ashley bell proud member of iota phi theta fraternity incorporated and i’m encouraging you to support the movement to make sure black men get out and vote i don’t care who has been speaking between iyanla and and now but i always want to speak like that and say welcome back beloveds um

I love that woman uh we’re going to talk about beloved hbcus historically black colleges and universities and talking about activating those hbcu voters and dr glover uh let’s let’s go back to you as as president of one of those beloved hbcus let’s talk about activating them and of course

Um represent a very important a voting bloc they are engaged as as you know in politics and social issues what do you see as their role in the political landscape and in this age of covet 19 coronavirus well thank you there is probably no part of american life that cover 19

Is not affected and so hpcus have been equally as expected and this this this includes when where how uh students can can vote in november election uh so this pandemic has kind of has reshaped the 2021 school year plans some are open some are not some are online

So we tell students one uh register to vote you know almost registration closes on october 4th and 5th are in so many states and october 15th is closing verified states so we say if living registered register at home use your home address because uh using the post box or school address

Might be problematic it might present a challenge of some sort of this type of election because we know that every ballot that can be challenged will be challenged so we don’t want to make it easier for the students not to have a challenged ballot this is a very important voting

Bloc because this is 18 and 24 year olds represent probably i think it was either 18 or 19 percent of the voting electorate and that is absolutely significant so what we have done we’ve asked each of what africa alpha has done we’ve asked for a some type of voter engagement activity

To be held on each htcu campus whether it’s voter registration voter mobilization voter education some type of voter engagement activity held on each campus um and we and these presidents of hpcu and you mentioned i’m at tennessee state university so i make sure that i’m emailing all the students

This week and eric’s comes the book by email each and every student and ask them to vote because we just make it clear that we’re counting on the students votes and every student has a duty to vote that’s what every adult has we ask them as we know students vote for

For uh for policies that that make them feel good they think that they that pertain to them like educational policies when they hear that someone’s gonna cancel student loan debt they’re going to make it more affordable for college that that triggers their interest that inspires them they have to have something to

Make them think that they’re going to be better off uh the economy they want to make sure they have a job or they can pay back their student loan debt or something what surprised me in the study that we had was climate control i mean the climate policy was third on the list

Because students seem to think that that their future is at stake that with the towns burning and the fields flooding that’s going to affect them if we don’t have the new technology and the development the talent that’s going to mitigate the effects of climate change so we have to vote for something

That they really feel like it’s going to affect them in their life in their daily lives but each campus has to do something to make sure they’re getting the vote out their voter mobilization partner with someone get help us get the boat out and have have different parties different virtual activities a giveaway

Have giveaways to get the students to get out to vote dr ward uh certainly life on an hbcu campus you are no stranger to that and then as president of alpha phi alpha fraternity incorporated are you seeing plans to activate the hbcu voters and especially those who are not on campus

I’m very encouraged and one of the things i think is important if you look at all of our organizations the majority of our organizations were founded on historically black colleges so each of our presidents and those that were founded on pwi’s we were founded at cornell university we understand that in the 99

Historically black colleges with some over 200 000 students we know that it is important that those students be engaged what i am extremely pleased about is the activism that’s happening on hbcu campuses all over the country and so the students are using social media they are having virtual

Uh candidate forums they are partnering with alumni chapters when i talk to our college uh members they are not only staying on their college campuses but they’re also being involved in activities on the campus uh area surrounding uh their respective campuses so this is uh something that we’re real

Pleased about we have uh college students who are planning and conducting candidate forums where they’re doing opposition research on candidates uh while we have some students that are virtual uh we have some that are on campus i am just pleased at the creativity and the innovation of the students

We’ve got students who are participating in black lives matter one day and holding voter registration drives and doing all types of uh activities uh being involved in the census i was talking to one of our leaders today and uh they’re planning a concert uh that will be a drive-in

Concert and what they’re going to do at this drive-in concert is is reddish to people to vote and also as it’s been said by several of my colleagues already they are planning to vote uh of course vote but i’ll work on election day at the polls they are volunteering

To work at the polls on election day but then also what’s what is so encouraging about our hbcus is that these students are prepared for leadership in the future and i think that is key as it’s been said uh many of our organizations i know

In alpha phi alpha we started in in the 1930s the voteless people is the hopeless people so we’re training our uh collegiate members to be involved in civic engagement as a part of our national program one of the other rewarding things i think we need to take away from this conversation

Is that there is among the national panhellenic council a collegiate council so the vice presidents of our various organizations are working together and organizing and uh see that they have a collective influence when they work together one of the proudest moments that i’ve seen is particularly as chairman

Of the council of presidents is when you can see on social media regardless of fraternity affiliations you have kappas and omegas and deltas and zetas and sigmas and iodus working in the community together and i think that’s a powerful statement about where we are at this point in american history that

Our community has said that we know what’s at stake uh this is a crystal clear election we know what the issues are and we know what the representation is uh as it has been clearly articulated uh coming from the highest level of government with regard to uh issues of race racial division

And also issues that have a negative impact on the african-american community so i’m very encouraged with what our historically black college students are doing what our administrators are doing as a former president of saint augustine’s it was during my tenure that every election as president i marched with the students to the polls

Because it was important for the president to to exemplify the importance of registering people to vote and i know many presidents require their students to register to vote as a part of their orientation now that we are in this covet 19 the message that we’re sending to our collegiate leadership

Is that make sure you’re registered at home and if you’ve registered on the campus and you’re now at home change your registration and make sure that you are duly registered because on election day we need every vote that we can i’m just encouraged and very pleased about what i see happening on

Historically black college campuses and with our collegiate members i’m i’m extremely pleased well i got my education on historically black cloud colleges and universities under tom joyner i was a pwi kid uh and then and i just uh want to give a shout out to those

Who are at the pwis and uh and and are going out there and getting together and to uh form a coalition to get out the vote so it’s a just a shout out to uh those of us uh who are graduates of or still attending other predominantly white institutions

I think one of the things that’s happening civil is that students at predominantly white institutions are also being very active on their campuses as well so you have black student organizations who are engaged in voter registration and the real critical point here with the divine nine is it doesn’t matter what campus you’re

On hbcu or pwi the activism that’s happening uh within those uh various chapters of the divine nine is so important uh so i i’m very pleased at what they are doing that’s awesome that’s awesome hey you hear that northwestern get out there and vote you may not be

Doing much on the football field but you can get out and vote just saying um so now let us move to uh something an area that uh is uh near and dear to all of us and it’s in the headlines each and every day uh of course i’m talking about the uh

The groups uh who are bringing to the attention of the rest of the world about the importance of black lives matter and and and uh dr um marion let’s talk to you a little bit about that and and talk about uh these uh young people who are out there who

Are marching as as most of you have talked about today um but how are we harnessing that energy of of this movement to encourage voting in november and beyond well i think we’re sticking with our message uh that we’ve been talking about earlier tonight where if you march for brianna taylor and

And ahmad arberry and george floyd and and you don’t march to the polls to vote then there’s a real problem with that because that’s where you’re going to be able to do some things in terms of power uh what we’ve seen today um is not uncommon for many of us that are

Talking here tonight um in this town hall many of the presidents are from the south you have myself in jackson mississippi you have dr glover uh from jackson mississippi you have mike crystal he’s from the delta uh you have brother ward who’s who’s from north carolina

And we have uh uh beverly who’s from uh georgia so you have some folks that have seen racism all of our lives uh and so when we see what’s happening now we’re reminded so much of things in the past uh when i saw george floyd on that ground i was

Particularly moved and thought about emmett teal uh and i thought about how emmitt came to mississippi and supposedly flirted with a white woman who later years later recanted and said he didn’t but nevertheless her husband and brother came to his uncle’s house uh made him carry a 75 pound cotton gin

Fan to the banks of the tallahatchie river made him strip down uh where he had no clothes on beat him damn near to death gauzed one of his eyes out shot him in the head and then wrapped him in barbed wire to that cotton gin fan and threw him in the tallahatchie river

When he was 14 years old seeing this for many decades when we saw those those men on the back of the truck with all my artberry we knew if you’re in this park you knew what that meant uh you knew what was about to happen and so we see folks young folks

Energized these young folks today aren’t playing they’re willing to die for this cause they’re willing to kill for this cause they’re willing to fight for it and so our job in our organizations is to keep them and everyone else energized to go vote uh this is your opportunity

To exert some power over this process be it the presidential election or be it down balloting you need to not miss this opportunity to vote your vote is so important that’s why folks are working so hard to suppress it we talked about voter suppression earlier and in mississippi i would

Always hear stories about you get to the polling place and there’d be a watermelon sitting there and your truck would guess how many steeds was in it against how many bumps are on it or borrowed soap guess how many bubbles are in it that was the question you had to answer

Correctly which you never could before you were allowed to vote and so this voting is very serious we know people have died for our right to vote and we have to stay energized throughout this whole process to make that happen uh dr ward let’s come back to you

And and talk about this and and talking about uh the social and racial climate uh and the uh impacting the voting and the mission of the members of the divine nine can you speak to that well i think without a doubt you you’ve heard tonight and the audience has heard

That the divine nine is united we are collectively united in a way that says this election and not only this election but what happens after the election politics is 365 days of the year so we are very committed to making sure that we are united and and not only encouraging our members

To vote but the communities that we serve 2.5 million members of the divine nine but the influence of our organization multiplies into the millions when you talk about uh our local chapters and individual members but i think there’s something that’s very critical that must be said tonight

And that is is that we support black lives matter because what black lives matter is doing is following in a tradition that is very much rooted in our organizations in historically black colleges and the african-american community we must not forget that it was students at howard university who picketed and protest about lynchings

That was happening in america we must not forget that it was students at shaw university in 1960 that gathered from all over the south and some from the north to form the student nonviolent coordinating committee better known as snick what we must do number one is is make certain that the narrative that

Some people are using to misrepresent black lives matter and misrepresent the true issue of what they are uh what we are all concerned about and that’s the violent and brutal murder and attack of young black people men and women and so we’ve got to say to these young people

Finish the march and march to the polls on november 3rd but then after november 3rd be engaged so for example here in north carolina when we talk about down ballot we have uh in yvonne lewis holly a candidate who’s running for lieutenant governor right we have an african-american female who’s chief

Justice of the north carolina supreme court sheriff beasley we’ve got to go all the way down the ballot in virginia you have uh we have a fraternity brother who’s running who’s a medical doctor and an attorney who’s running for congress by the name of cameron webb in the state of georgia another alpha

Brother running for public office to be a united states senator so we’ve got to help people understand that this election is crystal clear so when we have a president who stands and talks about law and order as proud americans we know what law and order means and it doesn’t mean anything good for

Our people and so what i say to our members on a daily basis at our general convention last year i declared war on jim crow i declared supremacy because what we’ve got to say to these young people you’ve got to continue to carry the torch because the torch has been passed to us

You look at what our good sigma brother uh congressman lewis said to us so well that good trouble is good but remember it was a delta lady who said in 1972 and it was martin luther king who said that there have been a bad check given to us

And we want it but it was an omega and jesse jackson who ran for president so we’ve got to help people understand the history and the legacy of our people and racial bigotry and racism is alive and well and we’ve got to say to these young people

No we’re not taking any backward steps we’re going to march on within up with all ways and so when you have these rallies and you talk about uh senator harris a graduate of howard university a member of alpha kappa alpha and you use derogatory language towards her then you’ve taken on the whole

Panhellenic council all right the way that we’re going to solve the issue is my mother used to tell us i can show you better than i can tell you and the way we go is on election day we’re going to vote these folks out that want to go back

And 1940 because we’re not going back to those days anymore it’s a new day and that’s where we’re going with some new leadership and the divine nines gonna lead the way i’m so proud of all of our divine nine members for what they do all over this nation and all over the world

A true chairman of the divine knight we got it and uh president smith i think uh you know you might not have to uh uh not taking away anything from uh uh pastor freddie haynes but i think you got your sunday sermon right here on this journey

You got a history lesson and you got a sermon i think we’re good to go we have our marching orders and everything right um dr marion uh when you’re talking about emmett till uh there is an effort in chicago uh emmett till’s home uh to make the the

Last place he saw his mother the home where he grew up to make it into a historical uh a place in the city of chicago they are just starting the process of that uh and and god bless uh the the the name and memory of maybe

Uh till uh mobley who uh fought so long and hard uh for people to understand what happened to her son and vowed to never let that happen again uh and and i’m really proud of my hometown i was not a lot i’m proud about chicago these days but

Uh i’m very proud of the fact that they are working to make that a historical site uh let us move on and um and also while we’re talking about uh things in the news for those who have uh who need a little news update because that’s what we do

Uh what you need to know newsletter uh if you have not heard today there has been an agreement in the civil lawsuit brought by the mother of brianna taylor tamika palmer and uh there has uh historic uh according to good omega man uh that would be attorney uh crump

Then crump and has said that the 12 million dollars uh that the city of louisville has settled with brianna’s mother may be the highest uh the greatest number uh for a black woman especially uh but in their talk about this in their press conference today uh they people to remember that this is

A start they still want those policemen charged they want attorney general daniel cameron to do his job and to bring those men before a court and they want people to remember and to continue to say her name as they seek justice for brianna taylor um and and that is so strong

Today in listening to all you good women and men uh talk about the things that we are doing and and how we can make these changes in our community in the down ballot and all of these things uh are a big part of this and of course uh talking about black lives matter

So um as we uh get to the uh to the end of our program let’s talk about the important issue of getting our black men to vote uh this is uh not something that we would think would be a problem uh what it is is a a problem for those still trying to

Figure out how 14 of the black men who voted in 2016 voted for donald trump and donald trump is very proud of this as you have are probably hearing on the news these days uh he is using those some of those black men like hershel walker uh georgia state representative vernon

Jones in commercials uh to those black men uh engaged and and to vote for donald trump again but by the same token mr biden is uh using his resources as well uh and and using people like congressman uh cedric richmond and others to in their conversations uh and in barber shops black owned

Barbershops around the country uh specifically they’ve been in milwaukee as well as detroit and talking about the issues so as we uh talk about this particular issue of black men voting let’s uh go to you uh president manson and talk about uh the disproportionate number of black men who are formally incarcerated uh

Are you seeing this as a way to include are you seeing a way to include them in the political process even if they are not yet eligible to vote as we talked about uh in in florida especially yes yes we are uh what’s going on is uh and

First let me say that um we as black men we have to understand that we have to watch the what i like to say the okie doke uh they want our vote uh a lot of times we will hear the news oh not that many black people voted

Or at least not that many black men voted but they understand that there’s a you may not get that same kind of low turnout now after all the the uh issues have been going on so i want us to make sure that we’re clear that you cannot buy my votes

Regardless which side you plan on voting on because uh again that’s where uh they’re they’re going with a lot of this um hey i’ve got 14 black uh male voting uh that voted my way as if to say okay great the rest of the percentages will follow you next time that’s

That’s not necessarily how it works so uh we definitely uh want to make sure that we are aware on that but uh uh back to your question yeah for those uh uh members or those brothers who’ve been uh uh incarcerated and lost the right to vote you can still

Engage them just because someone does not have the right to vote does not mean that he doesn’t have the right to understand so i’ll never forget uh we were in down south uh in near selma and we were at the uh at the state headquarters there

And there was a man out there who was marching by himself uh with a bullhorn and was listening oh he was reaching everyone who could hear him with his bullhorn telling them to vote get out there he was in he was engaging and when i talked to him of course he

Unfortunately told me that he does not have the right to vote but that doesn’t stop him from influencing others and so our member our brothers our family our people who have been incarcerated and don’t have the right to vote we can still reach them we can still teach them the differences between

Uh uh you know what each candidate has to offer and uh making sure that they can get out there maybe not with their bull horn but they can get out there with their bullhorn and sign and tell people uh what the what you know how encourage them to vote i mean these

People still have families and friends and sons and daughters they had the right to vote so yes uh to say all that yeah we still need to be able to engage our members and family friends and loved ones who have been incarcerated and now out and thank you grant polaris and

Let’s take this to you president of phi beta sigma president michael crystal uh tell us more about the initiative that fraternities are doing in october regarding black men getting black men to vote yeah i’ll answer that but i just really want to i think it’s important that we learn

From uh what occurred in 2016 and the attractiveness that you said in respect to the disproportionate amount of black men who voted for uh 45 you know we didn’t know a whole lot in 16. uh if you think about a businessman you think about leading your household and finding the level of attraction

There uh you probably could see why there might have been a disproportionate book boy if you look at 16 to 20 we have learned a lot and when we factor that in then we start thinking about now how do we galvanize our community to really respond to what we saw 47

Of black men voted 55 percent of african-american women voted uh and so how do we galvanize our community so what father the sigma is doing is we’ve really taken kind of approach so it’s really rooted in messaging and you know when you think about messaging

Uh you think about how do we make a connection with our members how do we make a connection within our community and i love what president smith said and the rest of the team have said today it’s not about that negligence but it’s also about the down ballot and i thought

Rasheeda did a great job of calling out how important it is for that city council that school board how those elections play a critical role in our lives in many cases more so than what happens nationally but we also think about visual cohesiveness and we know as african-american men

We have a responsibility to roll the model both t-shirts on we’re asking our members to really cascade that across and then the last one which we think is important and it’s all rooted in connecting with the african-american male community it’s all galvanizing around events uh september the 18th we know that’s

National black voter day how do we really get out there and register african-american men then and then for us on september 26th we have a national sigma there service and the centerpiece of those activities are going to be voter registration and specifically how do we connect again within the african-american community

And so yes uh we saw disproportionate in 2016. our goal in 2020 is to really elevate that engagement among african-american men in a higher way that that’s exciting and uh it is so important i i hope that everyone has uh taken uh so much away from i know that i have

And i’m a i’m a long time voter in chicago we vote early and often so um i i understand that but there’s just been it’s been a very empowering session and i’d like to thank you all uh to uh for participating in this uh also i’d like for our uh viewers

Uh who are with us today to go to blackvotersmatter.org also for voting information and also as we are getting close to uh the end here i would like all of our audience to share this video with their circle of family and friends uh to to watch later

Uh don’t wait for thanksgiving it’ll be too late uh but uh get both together and get them to um you know to really understand uh the issues that you all have brought to the forefront uh as you have talked about uh educating and activating motivating and getting folks out to volunteer as

Well as to help people get to the polls and to get to the polls themselves and and then also uh to talk about registering um if we could just get a quick opportunity for each of you if you’d like to uh say a close uh a quick uh goodbye to your to your

Members as i thank you and so uh dr ward uh you have taken us to church um so i i i don’t know how you follow what you just gave us but you just have to pass the plate around yeah yeah the the main point i want to leave tonight that it’s it’s

Not saying uh hello to the alphas it is the collective of all of us working together so that’s the message that i want to leave is that it doesn’t matter what your colors are it doesn’t matter what year you were founded the only color that i tell people that matters is black

Because in this country under this current administration you are guilty as charged based on the color of your skin and we’ve got to reverse that and make sure that democracy really works for all people and so i say to our audience go out and vote like your life depended on it because it

Does and a voteless people is truly a hopeless people so it’s wonderful to be with you tonight sibling and thank you for what you do to uplift and educate our community with knowledge because we’ve got to be in the business of sharing knowledge and not propaganda and knowing the difference between propaganda

And knowledge thank you thank you dr everett ward i want to thank you president and chief executive officer of alpha kappa alpha sorority dr glenda glover to the grand palmark of kappa alpha psi fraternity incorporated that’s attorney reuben shelton to the president of omega sci-fi fraternity dr david marion uh it’s president

Of delta sigma theta sorority incorporated the honorable beverly smith president of phi beta sigma fraternity incorporated the honorable michael crystal president of zeta phi beta sorority incorporated the honorable valerie hollingsworth baker and off to a great start there uh also to the president of sigma gamma rho sorority incorporated the honorable

Rasheed of liberty also off to a great start and the grand polaris of iota phi theta fraternity incorporated the honorable andre manson uh i thank you all so much for uh for being a part of history and for uh taking us on this trip as we continue our journey and uh

And towards a better day uh november 4th uh november 3rd obviously is voting day but on november 4th it’s going to be a brighter day right a day it is very warm i would also like to thank folks who uh played such a big part in making this happen uh dr

Marion thank you so much for all of your help in making this happen uh to sheila eldridge for her publicity machine and by the way sheila uh congratulations on the salute them awards that we saw over the weekend and more to come to pat bailey for her marketing

Expertise uh please check out her website ladies and men uh it’s called cheatageswell.com i i appreciate all of their help and and all of the folks that that made this possible and especially my team uh i could not have done this uh we would not be here we’d be sitting on the phone

Somewhere maybe connecting each other by phone uh to have this conversation but we have cherie white who is uh just invaluable we have our young techie chica chicadilly and um to the one and only yolanda stark’s white and her better half a good uh alpha man himself ward white

Uh and thank you all so very much for making this happen and i can’t wait to uh to to see the fruits of your labors and and our labors so thank you all and and and i’ll thank my friend john murray i did not and uh tom joyner wherever you are

I hope we made you proud tonight we thank you all very much now let’s get out there and do what we need to do thank you sible thank you so much thank you

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