We Won’t Black Down: Black Voters Matter brings bus tour to Albany to drive excitement for fall elections
By Alan Mauldin
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ALBANY — The “blackest bus in America” rolled into town Friday for the first stop of a multistate tour, with several voter and civil rights groups looking to pump up voters at Albany State University ahead of November elections.
“The first stop to kick it off was in Albany,” Kanisha Jones, Black Voters Matter’s regional organizer for 13 counties in southwest Georgia, said. “This Youth Renaissance Tour is an HBCU (historically black colleges and universities) tour.”
The Friday event coincided with National Black Voters Day, and the tour’s theme is “We Won’t Black Down.”
“We collaboratively got together to bring festivities to Albany State University,” Jones said. “We brought this out here to encourage our youth. There are so many who not only voted but they volunteered in the 2020 presidential election.”
The effort also encourages students who will be future leaders, lawyers and professionals to get or stay involved, she said.
Albany State senior Deaijah Phillips was already on board prior to Friday, having taken her right to vote seriously.
“Absolutely,” said the early childhood education major, who is planning a career in teaching. “I look forward to voting. We have a lot of great candidates. I just hope a lot of my peers get out there and make a difference.”
The bus will make stops at Fort Valley and Savannah state universities, and in Americus, Cordele, Griffin and Atlanta before heading to North Carolina later in the month.
Among those who were in Albany on Friday was Gerald Griggs, the state president of the NAACP and an Atlanta attorney.
“It’s important to galvanize the youth vote, the college students,” he said. “We’re making sure that we get the students ready for the election. It was a good turnout, especially on a Friday afternoon and with the football team traveling out of town this weekend.”
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