An ongoing illustrative history study
This piece originally posted on 11/01/2024
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"Prominent veterans and those just starting out, seasoned organizers and emerging leaders all have something to give."
In this last biography/trading card before the 2024 election, I'd like you to pay very close attention to the words (and the deeds) of Melanie Campbell, next-generation voting rights activist and spiritual heir to the groundbreaking work of Dorothy Height (see Lesson #28 in this series), who once mentored her. Originally from Mims, Florida, Campbell was raised by a mother who taught Black history in Brevard County public schools. She graduated from Clark Atlanta University in 1983 and eventually took a job at the Atlanta offices of then-governor Maynard Jackson --and on one occasion was responsible for hiring a young Stacey Abrams (see Lesson #104) into the office of youth services.
In 1995 Campbell joined the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation (NCBCP), based in Washington, D.C., and by 2000 had become its director. Years of dedicated voter outreach efforts followed, some of which led to local action --and some of which led to arrest. Campbell and the NCBCP are credited with having registered 200,000 voters in the 2004, 2008, and 2012 national elections.
Campbell also chairs the Black Women's Roundtable (BWR), a policy forum through which she and her colleagues continue to push for passage of the Freedom To Vote Act (aka the For The People Act, or H.R. 1), and was instrumental in persuading Joe Biden to select Kamala Harris as his Vice-Presidential running mate in 2020. Four years later, Campbell spoke at the 2024 Democratic National Convention, when it nominated Vice-President Harris as its candidate for President.
And on that note: go vote, my friends. Double check your registration status (yes, voter rolls are being purged without notice). Make a solid plan to get to the polls --know the open hours, know the route, plan for traffic and parking, make provisions, bring along any and all legal documents. Don't let anyone talk you out of it or try to intimidate you away from that voting booth --they wouldn't be going to such an effort to unnerve and scare you, if it weren't important. Way too many people have fought for your right to step into that voting booth this coming Tuesday: ordinary folks who saw what was happening and quietly stood up to do what was needed. Mary Church Terrell. Bob Moses. Annell Ponder. Ella Mae Brayboy. Unita Blackwell. We all owe this honor to their memories, to their struggles. Don't let them --or Ms. Campbell-- down.
"This is how democracy crumbles," a November 2020 article about Campbell, on the eve of that election
Next lesson - Lesson 164: Thomas Mundy Peterson