GA FIGHT PARTNERS
BMVP, established in 2019, works to address the fact that +50% of Black men in the US have registered to vote but have not done so in the last five consecutive elections, including during either Obama election cycle.
With voter engagement programs across the South— and especially across Georgia’s smaller and medium-sized cities with large Black populations, BMVP aims to shrink the voting gap between Black men and women from ten to four percent through non-traditional engagement and campaigns run by Black men, addressed to Black men, and reflective of issues important to them.
BMVP also holds regular focus groups called “Brothers be Voting” to hear from men in their communities, and address barriers to their participation.
Recent Press
“It's important to do your homework to make sure the organization you want to support is doing the kind of work Georgians need…”
“Mondale Robinson, founder of the Black Male Voter Project, echoed the advice... ‘If it looks like traditional campaigning, if it sounds like traditional campaigning, it's probably responsible for traditional results. Traditional results did not deliver us Georgia…’”
Conceived five years ago during the uprising in Ferguson by the rapper Tef Poe and orator Phillip Agnew, Black Men Build brings Black men together to engage in the US as an organized force, working to heal Black communities and move them forward.
In Metro Atlanta, they’ve identified 300k low propensity voters and are targeting 200k of them with text and canvassing operations, from two bases in Atlanta (they’re also seeking to expand to Macon, Savannah, Augusta, and Columbus in support of January 5 GOTV efforts). The group likens their efforts to a war that is not being won, not for lack of numbers but for lack of organizing and alignment on principles, goals, and vision for what needs to be built. The platform centers on a digital and print publication called WARTIME: The Black Men’s Survival Guide, now in its second issue, which features articles, letters, and art by Black artists representing their communities, the systemic failings, and help navigating these times.
Black Men Build has held six ‘Mass Meeting’ online events since kicking off on June 20th, and will continue to organize throughout the pandemic, the January Senate run-off election, and beyond.
Recent Press
[Along with co-founders Philip Agnew and Steven Pargettt], the rapper, activist, and educator Tef Poe… best known to the masses as a passionate and devoted activist in the wake of the Ferguson protests... is a founding member of Black Men Build, a new initiative… to address the severe rift between Black men across the nation and to galvanize them under a firm banner that will fortify existing and like-minded ideological shifts.”
[Says Poe:] “‘Black Men Build is a collective of artists, athletes, Black men who work every day 9 to 5s, people that are in unions, that are fast-food workers, lawyers, doctors, the vast diaspora of Black male identities who are attempting to politicize ourselves.’”
In 1998, months after stepping down from 20 years at the helm of SCLC — which he’d created with The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. — Rev. Joseph Lowery convened The Georgia Coalition for the Peoples’ Agenda.
Now led by Helen Butler, GCPA is an Atlanta-based organization with seven offices — and a full staff team — across GA (metro ATL, Athens, LaGrange, Augusta, Macon, Savannah, Albany).
GCPA has registered hundreds of thousands of voters, and through that work is improving state governance by fostering an informed and active electorate that holds elected officials to be responsive and accountable. GCPA hosts weekly open Zoom forums with voters and candidates and has also sponsored legal challenges, including the 2018 defeat of suppressive GA voter registration policies.
Throughout 2020, GCPA has targeted disenfranchisement at the polls by training 1,300 election workers and providing rides and support to Black voters who often face hours-long waits to vote in their own communities.
Recent Press
“Helen Butler knows more about voting rights, who votes, who does not vote, where the poles are located, which poles get closed, and much, much more, than any other individual in Atlanta and the state of Georgia. I’ve seen her in action. She is a walking, talking voter advocate.
Executive Director for the Coalition for the Peoples’ Agenda, an advocacy organization comprised of representatives from the human rights, civil rights, environmental, labor, peace and justice groups throughout the State of Georgia and other southeastern states. Dr. Joseph E. Lowery served as convener of the coalition” [Dr. Lowery was a co-founder of the SCLC, with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr].”
Atlanta Business Journal (December 2019)
“In preparation for the November election, Butler had already opened seven offices across the state aimed at mobilizing Black voters… Before the election... the Peoples' Agenda made more than 1 million phone calls or sent text messages to potential GA voters. The group also held several candidate forums across the state, sent out mailers to educate voters on the candidates, provided rides to the polls and trained more than 1,300 poll workers.”
Atlanta Journal-Constitution (November 2020)
"This year was especially challenging because of the pandemic – but still 5 million Georgians voted in-person and by mail, which is a record-breaking number."
“'It took a village and a village made it happen', Butler said."
Woke Vote is re-upping their successful 2020 activation efforts for the Georgia runoffs, combining extensive canvassing, and text and phone banking across the state.
Woke Vote specifically targets areas with 60%+ Black or minority populations where voter propensity has ranged from 0-35%. To date, Woke Vote’s anti-suppression work across 20 high-risk precincts has netted 17% or better turnout numbers.
In 2020 to date, WokeVote has trained 1,000 new leaders, 125 community operatives, 200 fellows, and secured 120,000 commitments to vote through outreach efforts that included the national State of Emergency Vote Tour and work in twelve states.
Based in Birmingham and active throughout the South, Woke Vote invests in long-term engagement of millennial and faith-based voters of color by developing new organizers and maintaining a consistent presence outside of banner election cycles.
Recent Press
“Woke Vote, the collection of students and church-going activists and voter organizers she founded, had been working to bolster black turnout long before the Senate race gained national attention…”
“The effort to turn out black voters in Alabama differed from previous campaigns, Thompson said. Unlike traditional get-out-the-vote campaigns implemented by Democrats in key African American communities close to elections, many of the moving pieces in the Alabama election were funded by entities other than the party or the candidate’s campaign, and had been proceeding in stealth for months. Indeed, Woke Vote’s focus was only peripherally about Jones. “This was a completely independent effort that was focused on the idea of what happens when you resource black people with the goal of turning out black people,” Thompson said. “’They really connected with this idea that we had black power, and that black power could be shown through the vote.’”