You may not have heard of Black Voters Matter (BVM). Their work has brought millions of dollars to grassroots election organizations and mobilized countless Black and brown voters in the last six years.
They have held bus tours with different themes, such as “The South is Rising” in 2018 to “We Got Power” in 2020, a “Freedom Ride” last year, and this year the Blackest bus tour in America, titled “We Won’t Black Down.” That’s not even half of it: The group also works year-round to increase voter registration, advocates for policies around voting rights, and funds and inspires civic engagement in marginalized communities nationwide.
Cliff Albright, who co-founded BVM with his business partner LaTosha Brown, tells Daily Kos that despite all that’s been thrown at marginalized communities—voter suppression, the persistence and rise of white supremacy, economic inequities, and more—the message of BVM has remained the same since it launched in 2016: When it comes to getting Black and brown folks to the polls, the group has no plans to let up.
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“We're not going to back down; we're not going to tone down, we won't Black down. We're going to come out just as hard and mobilize our voters and have some conversations about our issues. And we will do that while traveling across at least 12 states,” Albright says.
BVM’s bus tours excite voters and support local organizations on the ground, informing voters about their local downballot races, registering voters, pushing voters to vote early, and most importantly, getting people to the polls.
“If we get just one-third of those folks, not even all of them, but if we just got one-third of those, there's no election in any of these states that we could not win,” Albright says.
Albright says the bus tours connect people and build bonds.
“They get motivated when you show them that you care about their lived experience and what they're going through, what their hopes and dreams and objectives are. That's what gets people excited. And that's what we do when we go out on the bus. It's not just about singing and dancing at neighborhood block parties. It's about connecting with people and letting them tell their stories and be heard, and then building relationships amongst people in communities and organizations,” he says.
According to the organization’s 2020 federal 990 tax filing, BVM regranted about $10 million to around 300 to 400 grassroots organizations in the U.S. Albright says that this year, the amount will be around the same—around $9 million.
This year one of the most-watched races will be Georgia’s gubernatorial race between the Republican incumbent Gov. Brian Kemp and the Democratic powerhouse Stacey Abrams. There’s been talk in some media outlets that Abrams, who is behind Kemp in the polls between 4% to 6%, is struggling due to a lack of Black men voters.
Albright sets the record straight.
“Black men may trail Black women, but the two biggest consistent blocks of voters for Democrat and progressive candidates are far and away Black women, followed by Black men,” he says.
But, he says, there is a level of sexism and patriarchy regarding male voters of all races. “We have to speak to it and be honest about it. … However, most men will vote for whomever the best candidate is who will meet their interests.”
Regarding Abrams, Albright says he’s not surprised about the polls. “It’s Georgia. It’s going to be an uphill battle. This isn’t a deep blue state,” he says. But he adds, “For some people, including The New York Times columnist, to write about how all hope is lost and Stacey Abrams can't win is at best hyperbole, and at worst is intentional propaganda to try to sidetrack these efforts.”
Albright says more important than polls should be an issue that isn’t getting enough attention: Last week, an individual attempted a voter purge of thousands of registrations in Georgia’s Gwinnett County—the state’s most diverse county.
He’s talking about a campaign led by VoterGA, which supports former President Donald Trump’s bogus election fraud theory and recently contested 37,000 voter registrations. The county validated 15,000 to 20,000 voters, Reuters reports, leaving 16,000 pending.
“So, SB-202 and voter suppression is far more troubling to me than whatever the margin is of Black men trailing behind Black women in terms of how they're voting,” Albright says.
In addition to volunteering or donating money to progressive and Democratic efforts ahead of this year’s midterms, Albright says he’s constantly reminding folks that “people cheat when they’re losing.”
He continues, “We’re encouraged by the amount of resistance we're facing because it's a sign that what we're doing is working. It's a sign that we have power.”
Albright says he stays optimistic by looking back in history and seeing how far we’ve come. He adds that some media take for granted the work or try to diminish it, but “we know that we’re winning things. And that gives me hope.”
He adds: “When I look at the things that we've overcome. When I look at the movements that have come before our current movement when I reflect on some people who I was blessed to live with and worked with in the ten years I was in Selma. And remember those I worked with and talked with and broke bread with, people who were on the bridge in Selma; when I look at that history, that keeps me optimistic. If they haven't broken us yet, certainly nothing that they're doing now is going to break us.”
The Good Fight is a series spotlighting progressive activists battling injustice in communities around the nation. These folks typically work to uplift those who are underserved and brutalized by a system that dismisses or looks to erase them and their stories.
Editor’s note: This story originally reported that LaTosha Brown was Cliff Albright’s wife. That is incorrect and has been updated to reflect that Brown is Albright’s business partner.
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