DETROIT – With Michigan’s governor’s race at the top of the ticket, one group is making sure no voice goes unheard before polls open.
Members of the Young Black Lawyers Organizing Coalition have been visiting barber shops and churches across Detroit, spreading a simple but powerful message: Your vote matters.
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“Our education work is really about empowerment and it’s about making sure that people understand that democracy matters,” said Abdul Dosunmu, founder of YBLOC.
At Tabernacle Missionary Baptist Church on Detroit’s west side, the coalition connected with hundreds of people in the Black community during Sunday service.
“This is Tabernacle’s way of reigniting that passion, that commitment and that drive to let everyone know that they matter,” said Emanuel Haley, chairman of the Board of Deacons at Tabernacle Missionary Baptist Church.
YBLOC acknowledges that voter turnout tends to be low in many Black neighborhoods — and says disengagement is not the answer.
“The solution is not to disengage. The solution is to engage,” Dosunmu said.
It is a statistic both the coalition and the church are working together to change.
“It is the church’s responsibility and role to remind them of our significance as a community,” Haley said.
Sara Campbell, a New York University law student and YBLOC member, says voting is about more than casting a ballot.
“Voting is just one tool, one way that people can feel that sense of agency over their lives and what’s happening in the world around them,” Campbell said.
The group says if they inspire just one person to get out and vote, they’ve done their job.