In 2004, I escorted Missy Misdemeanor Elliott—the multi-hyphenated talent, Grammy Award-winner and Songwriters Hall of Fame inductee—to the polls to vote for her first time. Like so many young people and people of color, Missy felt alienated from the voting process and did not recognize her power in our shared democracy. But moved by the issues she faced in her community growing up, and empowered by a budding movement that would ultimately become the Hip Hop Caucus, Missy felt compelled to finally exercise her sacred right as an American citizen.
2019
Reverend Alvin Herring
Reverend Alvin Herring
Executive Director, Faith in Action
Setting the Captives Free: Working to Get to Equal
Getting to equal means ensuring that all our brothers and sisters have the opportunity to participate civically in state, local, and national elections. Since 1868, Florida’s constitution inserted and enshrined an all-too-common contradiction into one of America’s founding principles: that all her people are created equal. Men and women who strayed from the path but paid their debt to society were not allowed to rejoin it as productive citizens. A felony conviction sentenced formerly incarcerated persons to a lifetime without true freedom and without a voice to support positive change.
Black Joy, Black Power, Black Votes
Black voters have a lot to celebrate. Investments we’ve made in Black voters over the last several years have predictably paid off, and we are steadily moving toward the full realization of our electoral power. Everyone else should celebrate, too. When Black voters win, everybody wins because no progressive change happens without Black voters. We usher in candidates who champion progress on the economy, criminal justice, healthcare, the environment and more.
Michael F. Neidorff
Michael F. Neidorff
Board Chair, National Urban League; Chairman & CEO, Centene Corporation
Mandela Barnes
Mandela Barnes
Lieutenant Governor, Wisconsin
Mandela Barnes serves as Wisconsin’s 45th Lieutenant Governor. He was elected on November 8, 2018, and sworn into office on January 7, 2019. He is the first African American to serve as a lieutenant governor in Wisconsin, and the second African-American to ever hold statewide office.
Mid-stride in the March for Justice and Equity
It is with incredible honor that I write these words as the 45th lieutenant governor of the state of Wisconsin. The gravity of being the first African American elected to this office, and the second ever elected to statewide office, is not lost on me—nor is the fact that Wisconsin is home to some of the most extreme racial inequities in the nation.
La June Montgomery Tabron
La June Montgomery Tabron
President & CEO, W.K. Kellogg Foundation
La June Montgomery Tabron is the president and CEO of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation (WKKF) in Battle Creek, Michigan, one of the largest private foundations in the United States.
Creating an Equitable Democracy Through Leadership and Solidarity
Our founder, Will Keith Kellogg, believed in the democratic process driven by ordinary people collaborating to solve the problems that faced children and their families. He called it cooperative planning, intelligent study and group action – cooperative leadership on behalf of the whole. His belief in it was so strong that he bequeathed his entire fortune to pursuing it in order “to promote the health, happiness and well-being of children” – all children, regardless of race, sex, creed or nationality.
James Rhee
James Rhee
Chairman & CEO, Ashley Stewart