Tonight, Saturday night, porch lights are lit across the African-American neighborhoods in southwest Georgia. Trump is coming, and people are afraid his presence or words will spark violence, damage or just plain old acts of intimidation in their neighborhoods. For the last few days, people have been pulling out their phone tree lists to remind their friends and neighbors to share any reports of concern in their neighborhoods and turn on their porch lights tonight (and the next few nights until they feel the threat dims).
I have no idea if this is a common response to a Trump visit, but I do know that there is a palpable tension from concern with Trump's baseless accusations about his election in Georgia being stolen from him (talk about a sense of entitlement!). Just hearing this in casual conversation illustrates the kind of risk that black Georgians (/Americans) live with every day.
Why porch lights? Well, turning on the lights is supposed to dissuade anyone who might be thinking about lashing out. That seems to be the “official” explanation. But I like this explanation better: "Trump isn't the light. We are the light. We want people to know."
A lot more has been said about the anxiety Republicans have about Trump's visit, but the African American community is more anxious (and definitely more justifiably anxious). The porch light effort wasn't brought to my attention voluntarily -- old white guys, even ones who worked for Obama, aren't told about such things. I was told about this first because I asked one lady if she knew where the "hanging tree" was in her area when she was growing up.
I grew up in Cocoa, Florida and the hanging tree was a block south of King Street little more than a half mile west of U.S. 1. I only knew about it because I took some (slide) guitar lessons from an old blues man there, and somehow in that process became aware of it. But no one knew if the tree had ever served that purpose, only that it was commonly known (at least in that area) as such -- and the city council would not allow it to be removed when asked. So there was a certain mystique about it -- a mystique suitable for nightmares but not one that anyone (or community) should have been proud of.
I have talked a lot about the hanging tree, especially after I started working for Obama, something that my white neighbors would scoff at and my black friends would get quiet about. It’s one of those childhood memories that you just don’t escape. I can’t even imagine how I would have felt if the color of my skin was darker.
But this week, my question was answered by the revelation about porch lights and phone trees. Let’s just call it providing "for the common defense." It wasn't political. It was communal. It was defensive.
Hope Springs from Field PAC is focused on the ground, face to face conversations that have proven effective in turning out voters year in and year out. In the last Georgia runoff election, turnout in Black precincts dipped more than half, and in some, a lot more than half. By engaging the African-American community, knocking on their doors, not just in the Atlanta metro region, but also Georgia’s Black Belt, we want to increase that turnout significantly.
Obviously, we need your help. To send field organizers to Georgia costs around $12k per organizer (salary, taxes, benefits & expenses).
https://secure.actblue.com/donate/hopemobilization
Hope Springs from Field PAC was started by former Obama Alums because field organizing was the cornerstone of our success, especially in Iowa. The approach we adopted was focused on listening. We have brought field organizers and voter contact specialists to Georgia who staffed the Biden and other Senate campaigns in this cycle to Georgia. Face to face interactions, even masked and socially distanced, are critical. They are so critical that the RNC sent 600 experienced campaign staffers to Georgia at the request of Mitch McConnell. Karl Rove is leading the fund-raising. And we now know that the Koch group, Americans for Prosperity, is on the ground trying to mobilize white voters for Perdue and Loeffler.
Of course, you never want to have a conversation with a voter about whether or not they might fear for their life. But what I learned from the 3 conversations I had with black voters on this subject is that they took it seriously, they had a plan, and they felt more secure as more people joined in.
We can't do much about a feeling that things might get out of hand, but we can lend a prayer. We can turn on our own porch light (light 'em if you have 'em) in recognition. And we can remember that, yes, our strength is our diversity but our diversity means that we have different experiences and, sometimes, different fears. I was touched that someone would share their's with me.
I want to thank everyone for their support of Hope Springs PAC as we build out the ground game in Georgia. Thank you for your support. I know this diary is a little more personal than usual, and I hope I that’s okay...
https://secure.actblue.com/donate/hopemobilization