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Voting Rights Matter: Mobilizing the HBCU Vote in 2022 and Beyond

Common Cause and other voter groups have been working with HBCU students around the country. (Photo: Common Cause)

 

Key thought leaders, students, politicians and educators will gather to discuss the importance of the student vote and the role of HBCUs in the fight to protect voting rights during a town hall from noon to 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 25, at Howard University. The town hall will be held in the multipurpose room of the IRB Building at 2201 Georgia Ave NW, next to Howard’s bookstore. It is open to the public. Students in other cities can participate via live-streaming.

Panelists include:

  • Alyssa Canty, national director of youth programs for Common Cause
  • Keneshia Grant, associate professor and associate chair of political science at Howard as well as author of “The Great Migration and the Democratic Party: Black Voters and the Realignment of American Politics the 20th Century”(Temple University Press, 2020)
  • Courtney Snowden, former deputy mayor of Washington, D.C.; lobbyist; president of the Blueprint Strategy Group.

The moderator will be Jennifer C. Thomas, associate professor and journalism sequence coordinator at Howard. Thomas, a former executive director at CNN, is also helping to lead Howard’s coverage of the midterm elections.

This event is being co-hosted by The Black Executive & Student Training Program (The BEST Program) and the Howard University Department of Media, Journalism and Film.

HBCUs are essential to the strength of state, federal and local governments, producing outstanding engineers, attorneys, educators, artists, entrepreneurs and leaders who help shape the destiny of our country, according to The BEST Program.

“As we look at the current attempts to block and suppress the black vote, we recall the rich legacy of brave student activists, past and present, at our nation’s HBCUs who have played a crucial part in the civil rights and Black Lives Matter movements, championing equality and justice for all,” said Tracy Tramel-Boleware, executive director of The BEST Program.

“We must continue to find ways to educate and mobilize young people to protect voting rights and our Constitution, specifically in our battleground states,” Tramel-Boleware, a Howard alumna, said. “The role of HBCUs and its students remains vitally and critically important in the protecting of our democracy.”

Live-streaming link: https://www.facebook.com/The-Black-Executive-and-Student-Training-Program-101771408387259