Virginia Capitol Connections did a piece on Dr. Reid of 90for90, the voter advocacy group. I think everyone here at DK by now knows that Dr. Reid’s focus is registering voters. When he turned 90 he was asked if he wanted a party and he said, nah, he’d rather register voters, which is how 90for90 came to be.
They did a tremendous job of advocating for voter registration. They didn’t just get 90 new voters registered in every precinct in VA, that would have “only” been 240,000 people. In the end, close to 650,000 new voters were registered in the state.
The Capitol Connection article points out Dr. Reid’s belief in voter registration and establishing a strong voter base as the answer to so many things.
"Well, you don't give up," Reid explained, followed by a chuckle. "You try to make the changes and you try to do it within the system. We knew that voting was the answer and because we were denied the right to vote, we would have to register as many blacks as we possibly could in order to beat the system. We thought the ballot was more effective than bullets. We had to beat the system within the system. The voter registration was the only way out. And fortunately with the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act, we got them."
When Virginia responded to Brown v Board of Education by trying to close schools rather than integrate, Dr. Reid knew the answer was to register voters.
The black voter turnout in Richmond against the referendum was disappointing, with less than half of registered black voters casting a vote at the polls. Reid knew that poor voter turnout on an issue that affected black voters revealed a deeper issue.
That’s when he co-founded the Richmond Crusade of Voters, whose mission is:
To establish VOTER REGISTRATION and VOTER EDUCATION in the City of Richmond and issue such policy statement or institute such programs that will... improve the economic, educational, general welfare and solidarity of the people.
Through his years of work on voter registration, he sort of fell into running for office. While African Americans had been elected to local city councils, there were none in the General Assembly. When the Richmond Crusade’s candidate dropped out of the race, Dr. Reid stepped up to run and eventually he won, becoming the first African American elected to the Assembly since Reconstruction.
He hasn’t stopped since. He is still out there fielding candidates, sharing his knowledge, and advocating for voter registration and party building.
Voter registration should be a constant, said Reid. That should be a day-to-day activity. We have to get more people elected to the lower level offices.
The Democratic party is not very well organized. We have to organize on the city and state level first.
Precinct organization has not been taken on like it should and as it will be eventually.
The whole article is well worth reading.
The answer to Trump? Register voters.
Precinct by precinct, city by city, state by state, until we have a country. Until we win.