Buttons that say "Freedom Summer" sit on a table during the Power Coalition for Equity and Justice's kickoff event it for its voter registration and education drive on July 5, 2024, in New Orleans. (Verite News photo)
A Louisiana voting rights advocacy group is touring the state this summer to register Black voters and educate residents on their voting rights in order to increase turnout in the 2024 elections.
In honor of the 1964 Freedom Summer voter registration drive, the Power Coalition for Equity and Justice is going to cities across Louisiana on a tour named after the historic civil rights era political action. The group is registering residents to vote in these cities and informing them on how to navigate potential barriers to vote.
For instance, organizers have been teaching residents about a new state law going into effect Aug. 1, stipulating that only immediate family members or voter registrar employees will be able to assist with absentee ballots for more than one voter.
The tour also features information on polling locations and speakers from various social justice and social support organizations, such as the NAACP, Voice of the Experienced and Women with a Vision.
In addition to the presidential election, voters in Louisiana will decide in November on six congressional seats , a state Supreme Court judgeship and a ballot measure related to federal revenues from energy production. Ashley Shelton, founder and CEO of the Power Coalition, said her organization wants to make sure Louisiana voters know what is on the ballot.
“We need voters to make it down the ballot and understand the power they have to change not only their communities but the country,” Shelton said.
The tour has already stopped in New Orleans, Baton Rouge and Alexandria in July and will go to DeSoto Parish, Shreveport and Opelousas in August. At least part of each of those cities are located in the 2nd and 6th congressional districts, both of which are majority-Black in the state where nearly a third of the population is Black.
The 6th Congressional District was newly drawn by lawmakers earlier this year and will be used in the 2024 election cycle, despite legal challenges . Louisiana will also see two majority-Black state Supreme Court districts after Gov. Jeff Landry signed Senate Bill 255 into law this year; the state previously had only one majority-Black district for its highest court.
“Black voters weren’t able to actually elect candidates of choice in their districts, and the way that the maps were drawn, you had lots of places where the Black vote was cracked and/or packed,” Shelton said, referring to racial gerrymandering and its impact on elections.
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Jared Evans, a Louisiana native and senior policy counsel with the NAACP’s Legal Defense Fund, litigated the case to secure a new Black congressional district . He is joining Shelton for parts of the tour to talk to people about the legal implications of the Voting Rights Act.
In an interview, Evans spoke of the importance of honoring the original Freedom Summer, saying the country is at another “inflection point in our democracy” as it was in 1964.
“Not a whole lot has changed, it’s just the methods of voter suppression have evolved,” Evans said. “During the original Freedom Summer, they were just fighting to be seen [and] to be heard. At this moment, we fought for over three years just to have fair representation.”
In addition to lack of representation, Black voters have been dealing with the closure of polling places and voting restrictions due to criminal records . Evans said groups like the Power Coalition, NAACP and Southern Poverty Law Center are working to protect voters’ rights despite these challenges.
“People had been voting in the same location for 30 or 40 years, and they went to that same place, and it was closed or merged. There were no signs telling them where to go,” Evans said. “Minority groups like the Power Coalition, like the NAACP, like Black Voters Matter, had to serve essentially to the function of the Secretary of State and election officials.”
The Freedom Summer tour is one of several initiatives by civil rights and social justice groups in the Deep South to increase Black voter turnout. The Southern Poverty Law Center has partnered with the Community Foundation of Greater Atlanta to award grants to organizations in the Deep South for voter outreach .
At this year’s Essence Fest, the Lawyer’s Committee for Civil Rights Under Law launched a campaign to get Black women to serve as poll monitors . And the National Urban League held multiple voting rights events at its annual conference in New Orleans this month.
“There’s a long legacy of community organizing [and] partnerships between local and national organizations to bring equity and opportunity and voice to the state of Louisiana,” Shelton said.
The Freedom Summer tour’s next stop is in DeSoto Parish on Aug. 2. To learn more, visit powercoalition.org/freedomsummer .
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This article first appeared on Verite News and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
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