Category Archives: Election Day

1001 Black Men #728

1001 Black Men 728Web

The first Tuesday of this month was an election day. I know. Who votes in June, right? My polling place is Canaan Covenant Christian Church on Foothill Blvd in Oakland, California. At Canaan Covenant, all the League of Women Voters volunteers are Black and all of the voters are Black.

There’s something that feels very special about being an African American person voting with other African American people. With all of the efforts to restrict voting rights, going to a polling place run for and by Black voters feels we’re sharing something subversive, exercising a right that some still believe we should not have. Even in this small and unadorned space, on a gritty stretch of the already gritty Foothill Blvd., it’s powerful stuff, this voting thing. Power to the people. Souls to the polls. Black votes matter. Freedom now.

Ajuan Mance