You can see from his bio that it’s Dr. Reid’s 94th birthday today. 90for90, the voter advocacy group, was started to honor him on his 90th birthday. The intent was to register 90 new voters in each precinct in Virginia.
They didn’t actually meet that goal, which would have been 250,000 new voters. Over 600,000 new voters were registered before the 2016 election.
If that’s what he wanted for his 90th birthday, I shudder to think what he’ll want for his 94th. Is he going to want us to encourage those newly registered voters to show up and vote? Aiy, yai, yai!
Dr. Reid is a civil rights icon. He integrated his Marine platoon, integrated Bethesda hospital and integrated the Virginia Assembly by becoming the first Black man elected since Reconstruction. He’s responsible for so much good that has happened in the world, I want to celebrate him.
You can read about his 92nd birthday here. That link will take you to a bunch of other links where you can read to your hearts content about this amazing man.
I don’t want to take up too much space here, I want to leave space for readers to share their experiences and good wishes. Happy Birthday Dr. Reid! I sort of did get you a gift — I registered the neighbor kid to vote.