In Black America; Voter Registration and Education (NAACP)

fb in black america reflections of the black experience in american society in nineteen eighty two the national association for the advancement of colored people and set goals to his voter education department organizing political action network like writing letters of the association which the function was to find unregistered eligible voters to get them registered and get them to the polls the successful effort and so on and the addition of a hundred and fifty thousand newly registered voters by the end of nineteen eighty two because of the nineteen eighty two dr states has been set for the nineteen eighty four election year local naacp chapters are now organizing the new voter registration efforts in twenty states i'm zac hanson this week the focus on voter registration education without his ipad and retired director and

souls of medicine co director the end of a lazy peace voter education department still that's basically we wanted to find a way to expand our southern voter registration effort and to the north he had been in the region five workshop yesterday you'd have been assassinated i was with the number of voter registration activities that are going on by the various branches if thirty percent of the unregistered voters is in fact black unregistered voters existence out voter registration oftentimes looked upon as a sore subject and it's not been solved about what we're about to do in the spring and sixty mile mark hummel also we want to find a way to expand our voter registration drives in the south for the north simply because there's a great deal of voter apathy among northern blacks and the fact is that the gap between white voter participation in the north has widened since the signing of the nineteen sixty five voting rights act on the blackfoot

the actual gap has widened in the north and decreased in the south saw quality and so there's going to be an extension what we're going to do an army of activists news conferences were going over to you and you dress down and actually recruits thirteen young people who will be the core group of the market is thirteen young people all represent each a southern states including texas and oklahoma the thirteen will convene in louisville kentucky on aug twelve that we can join by john lewis and dick gregory will in fact provide breathing and training sessions or of the thirteen markers that will ban follow and on the fourteenth of all those studio while breaking from the kentucky site we're going to march with naacp officials and members from around the country across the ohio grade into ohio or we will hold a rally in which we will symbolically area called

barry voter apathy at that time we will we will have to rally its pathways workshops do voter registration in cincinnati move on then to dayton ohio spent two days in dayton similar activities in cincinnati workshop registration and i really really don't and on the weekend of labor day we will end in detroit michigan where there will be a major rally in which branch presidents from all over they are naacp is the system will report the number of registered voters that they have registered in reference to this people it will also establish the go it has approximately a three hundred and sixty nine march it is the first time that a major market gone through the normal cells of medicine the wreckage of the naacp voter education department at the nineteen eighty two task force on political action along with the directors of the naacp labor department is washington bureau public relations

education and the youth class divisions together they designed the system were about local chapters that monday harry reid disagree reapportionment plants and distribute information about the voting records of the elected officials additionally they could designate local high school principals as deftly registrars an organizer presentation voter registration cards and high school graduation ceremonies the ashes of this nationwide campaign was saying drastically on election day on november second nineteen eighty two black vote a historically large numbers collecting all time high twenty one black members to congress the highest number since nineteen seventy seventy additional black state legislators were elected and the black holes are ravenous is a larger force a social gubernatorial candidates in michigan texas new york and illinois polling is now second religion at the naacp i spoke with jos of madison grant director of the voter education department of the naacp as well as

the abuse ipad and retired director i've been in this militia of song nineteen twenty eight thousand high school and at that time i'm sure it was only since the year and then my mother had been active in it since nineteen forty eight flatt their lives and nineteen point out the equity seems to have again and state and i want that too working on as a field director for the morale things like a second tier in alabama one really enjoy it i saw big long island come to conduct a membership campaign mahmoud from an issue campaigns to associate director of what education and i stayed there until i got

in the one in nineteen seventy nine what was the need for the end of a lay sleeping wife they're continually and before the end of the lazy been continually i had the houses and what i am bone say was the demand that obama got one basin full of trouble and i don't think he went on about that and as long as we've got pig man and ask him that only in the naacp a fact we'll call you and we got i have some organization that can address issues of discrimination and souter are lots of columbia played with what some not so that you had to overcome first outing out of the membership registered been going to voter registration well you know back in the days when i started out it was devil go to

work below the ipod naacp there've been times when i've been in communities that i had to leave ahead of time the clams and several at the outside that i'm a license and counseling and it was difficult for us to work it was something that you would be afraid of you don't think and voter registration data it was love or there's no novel that does not always show the one i hear people use that term it's a matter of liking to equate the ballot would u bacon in a cell you all you'd written but huge obvious cetera until we done to equate those

we still will be in trouble as a voter registration effective job many people about you know getting them out of apathy is a matter of being able to relate the bacon in a weird about that and the boise is slowly moving from his original thought of legislation for black america it's only human life was more economic and political power we think that movie it's now time for me i sure love you know always been concerned about economics but we'll concentrate going on now that we have in times square and political power will always been interested in that but we are emphasizing that more then we have an update because people are becoming more educated on the idea of the dollar the need for the dollar

and the idea of the ballot so you've got to have that you're being what are some to raise achievement in the boise be accomplished in seventy four years all of these decision that they've gotten from the supreme court all of these things they knew that they're made of the result of the ballot and on where to spend the money put it in a proper place and spend and where that you did get some return from a not on and counsel of a good word to say this isn't an employment almost thing although you say what you and the naacp and then a father is a father and a grandfather of the civil rights movement and you can't take that away from a no matter what come along michael home behind you and the naacp

who inspired and call me on the result was that has become and the less they have done a good job of some of them and some are come about because of selfish ideas and that sort of thing and then when they got yours can't afford to leave a ship they are moving in the right direction but naacp will stand that there were regular longest time i think the naacp they're really become obsolete no whale noah well as long as you got black folks you know i felt as long as you have racism in this country an annual frail ailing you gonna need the naacp in europe in on not as much as they used to close they feel they aren't recent promise land they don't want to struggle want that they have it on families dr

omar ride the back of the bus they look at your i finally come out yet to go to the back of the restaurant so you couldn't eat in restaurants i think that they look at one way that they that they don't believe that asking a question he remained that which you couldn't stop and we'll kill them all till along the way we examine what it's all about so because they do not know what it's all about because the question is not a weight on them as it was on us right there they cannot appreciate the things that they really are into one at this time you see any gas and my utilities are campaigns where they're headed why people hate black folks were on an artist that like most to keep a black animation getting in there are known

campaigns where negro the movie and two were actually honestly was an honesty about it you really get an e mail and all of those two when a man some political if they have it with some money and some of the law in the us that the lieutenant colonel of the strategy now is some of the folks that run around talking about the run like i have questions about what their motives are and so far as they're concerned not john company with olson say that it might not be the best interests of this country for the next four years of blackout they are attempting to run on ass they plan to

use it in order to bring the other candidates the white candidate in la to our question does it make a difference who's in the white house in your opinion in life who has been the best president for black americans to now one i don't know you have several of them have been outstanding job and i don't know if you unknowingly jovial force they used to say you put a lot of the slack and turn it upside down i don't always wrong would it ground right so you get so will push done an outstanding job and you've got to remember that they had to do it within the framework of what america what america will permit at that particular time was some of harassment that lives in the thirties and forties had to overcome and reduced involvement and involved well you take a huge minority backed by forces say that

that rivals been estimating you'll be involved i wouldn't let it plus the fact if you get all kinds of barriers set up there to become a registered voter and that as i said i'm out of the girl you have got to be able to relate to bat the ballot when you bake and then they sold they will bring large to be made to believe that and they cut an actor to city and take you now to the us and then after this incident well russia has put on economic question of a long also did have the goods to tamper resistant to life i had to get out of town in town and so i'd leave town at a time so i am mindful that no but in a thing that you were done for him would live in for the bbc retired director of the voter education department of the naacp i also spoke

with jos of madison grant director of the voter education problem of the naacp and as importance of blacks registering to vote for the eighty four election or simple and that is to eliminate the dread of the reagan style government that can turn back civil rights and the advancement of social programs over the bass was just that simple e e b ronald reagan as the main catalyst to all of the activities surrounding the voter registration list be approved in the hallway programs one is that we're doing grassroots organizing are actually recruiting voter registration or political action happens in the district's second we're working with passing legislation that when the state of texas or interest in getting legislation that would authorize high school principals to be deputy registrars novices register and eighteen year olds when they

graduate and rice would actually have some bicycles and many of our cities struggling voter registration cards and graduation ceremonies along with the moment and the third trial and has been very successful for us his lines now it's tied and voter education director that i've had norton black wool cap me why don't we march like they do in the south but now we finally come to that point of these young people will all represent as i said southern states symbolically we're taking what is known as the underground railroad

that's why we dubbed it the over ground are all the sons of former slave and grandson of former slaves and slave owners for that matter because whites were in fact on a song march along march the trail that once they're up or bothers march the key to this is that we are going to expand which not only voter registration but we're going to expand national organization that will be left behind an active throughout the remaining a year and into nineteen eighty four that is basically the background and the details oh the market region parade will be at our primary region that will be because the baby but we will have branches from around the ohio kentucky michigan area leading the marchers and joining us at the various spots along the route we will sweep and churches and people called we will be there by naacp members and i guess what i'm trying to say to you that we're trying to expand to show you that we

have a system we got a network we got an organization and weapon or weeks we won it back in august and clapping together and will probably be the largest voter registration kicked off in the history of the naacp so with that i'll be glad to answer any question that you might say this is a problem when i when i must say today honestly the overall rate of michigan and its ceo ladle period ever wanted began to be if you wanted to change even given people an incentive of oil should find the devil and you expose the devil to the people and they will rise up they fear that reagan has been exposed as the devil is evil towards the black community and and realizing that just recently

sixteen year olds we couldn't vote we were talking about ronald reagan out of all now understand the importance of that so it is now i think in the relative european of lazy convention will they be similar well it's too late before well what's going to happen on august fourteenth i'm going to leave a group of young naacp is actually thirteen of them across the state in kentucky crossed the mason dixon line and end up in detroit on labor day three hundred and sixty mile mark time life our voter registration drive that is going to be extended from the south into the north and in detroit on labor day register mall of the country will have similar parades and report their activities to us in this final mass rally that we haven't written

that says church that will take all are angry at ford driver and unite the south with north korea well bob seven million unregistered black voters in this country right now we have established a goal of twenty five percent seven million eight million unregistered voters in each of the congressional districts that we've targeted some one hundred and ten of them if we get twenty five and then turn out ninety percent of all registered black voters in the country we think and that we stand a chance and succeeding in argo is this true the counting how many bubbles around a buzz saw like in texas are used to be before nineteen forty nine the white primaries it's

just changed its a little bit more sophisticated i refer to it is junk rwanda glass so instead of having no goldman says what do you have this redistricting annexation of cities to reduce the black population in mississippi some people have registered in both the county and the city and that is almost in it now round trip for a lot of poor people who don't have transportation period i just heard dealt with the case then no louisiana were reviewing a case where in some parishes where they're black candidates who share their lease to that rule where you have whites were on the voting those who don't even live in the parish in an attempt to us that's dictated that that is one of the classic scenes where voter registration offices are all the knowledge on working hours from a divide when people working and that they will they can't register new orleans where we are you can register on a sunday service we can register and churches say

on and on and on in nineteen eighty two five billion years ago a reason that a black candidate is even being considered as the fact that you've probably had six of dollars and charismatic an attractive white men of the democratic party that probably put forth they're not saying anything new basically i'm saying anything we want i think that a black candidate is getting the laws with jesse jackson is getting a great deal of attention because he's providing the only color and excitement and this very long presidential campaign and it's a very sad the commentary but again the viability of a black candidate said is both symbolic but it's also very pragmatic situation and pragmatically speaking the numbers added to elect the president and all we have to be very careful because if we heard the chances and of that being the reagans down the government

even get a bomb or reactionary conservative president and reagan could become far more reactionary and conservative until we want to write write a song sales of madison kind a regular voter education department of the naacp if you have a comment or like to purchase a cassette copy this program write us who dresses in black america long on radio network austin texas seventy seven one to four in black america's technical producer walter morgan i'm jackie hanson join us next week you've been listening to black america reflections of the black experience in american society in black america is produced and distributed by the center for telecommunication services and just not necessarily reflect the university of texas no

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