Activists in rural Georgia seek more robust effort to get Black voters to the polls
DAWSON, Ga. — Rev. Ezekiel Holley was in his early 20s when white supremacists burned two Baptist churches in Terrell County, Georgia. Local activists had used the spaces to organize a few years before the Civil Rights Movement won federal protections for Black Americans at the ballot box.
So four years ago, when black Georgians in rural counties proudly marched to the polls, where they helped determine the outcome of the presidential election and sent two Democrats to the U.S. Senate, Holley was elated.
As Holley strolls the backroads of the Terrell County capital of Dawson with a cane this year, knocking on the doors of Black Georgians in a region where voter turnout is historically low, he worries he won’t see the same level of outreach that President Joe Biden to a narrow victory in 2020 in Georgia, which has again emerged as a crucial swing state in the race for the presidency this year.
Biden won in part with the support of black voters in rural south Georgia. That year, several high-profile races took place simultaneously, creating a flurry of activity and generating enthusiasm among black voters who had historically been neglected by candidates. Rafael Warnock And Jon Ossoff – now senators – and former gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams traveled to the area to help black voters in rural counties vote. It didn’t hurt that Warnock and Abrams, both black, have long felt comfortable in the rural South.
Holley, 83, remembers 2020 as the largest mobilization effort he has seen in the region. It helped Democrats win the state’s 16 electoral votes for the first time in decades. Biden’s slim margin of victory in the state remains burned into the minds of many, in part because of a call from then-president Donald Trump to Brad Raffensperger, Georgia’s Republican Secretary of State. The Republican presidential candidate begged the state’s top election official to “find” enough votes — he lost easily 11,779 – to change the outcome.
The vice presidential campaign Kamala Harris called this year’s effort “the largest operation in the state of any Democratic presidential campaign cycle.” But some, like Holley, aren’t feeling the energy.
“Four years ago it was well organized,” said Holley, president of Terrell County’s National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). ‘That organization may seem like it, but I don’t see it taking action yet.’
Black voters in rural Georgia can be difficult to reach. The area is sparsely populated, and many Democratic areas in southwestern Georgia are in rural counties hit by decades of economic desperation. Residents here often tell lawyers they don’t think their vote will change anything.
“There is already underinvestment in rural communities, especially in Georgia,” said Sherrell Byrd, executive director of SOWEGA Rising, a nonprofit in southwest Georgia. “That’s why when it comes to political seasons, people are already politically depressed – we’re already economically depressed.”
Data from Georgia’s secretary of state shows that nearly half of all active voters in the 2nd Congressional District, which covers much of southwestern Georgia, are black. And according to an analysis of state data, more black registered voters turned out in 2020 than in 2016.
Holley has gathered a small group of residents – young and old – to knock on doors every week. Terrell County is about 60% black and delivered a Democratic majority in the recent presidential election. Black Voters Matter, a nonprofit organization, funds their turnout efforts.
On a cloudy Saturday in October, two days before the voter registration deadline, Holley left for Dawson with Delvin Blackwell and Patricia Powell. Blackwell ran down the sidewalk, knocking on doors and leaving flyers when people didn’t answer. Holley stayed behind and asked everyone who passed by if they were ready to vote. Many of them knew Holley and greeted him warmly before he gave his speech.
The trio found AJ Harrol sitting on a patio chair. At age 88, Harrol remembers a time when he couldn’t vote. Powell has signed him up for an absentee ballot, but he’s not sure he’ll cast it.
“Usually politicians don’t come along just to explain what they are going to do and what is going on,” says Harrold.
When Jaleen Green left his door ajar, he told the candidates he couldn’t vote. At 19, he didn’t know he could register. He let Powell in to help him fill out a registration form at his kitchen table.
Green said he hadn’t noticed people campaigning for either candidate. He said he plans to vote for Trump, whose campaign has far fewer Georgia volunteers than the Harris campaign. His father is a Trump supporter with a sign in his yard, and Green thinks Trump would be better for the economy. But he became more animated when the conversation turned to local issues.
“Fix the streets, the road,” Green said. “Build a community center for young people. Feed the homeless, give them shelter because the weather is bad.”
Gloria Brown did not vote in 2020 because she had been homeless for a while and had trouble registering. She feels frustrated about the lack of jobs with decent wages and wants politicians to work harder to earn votes from people like her.
“You need to come here and communicate with us,” she said.
Samantha Turner, who was visiting her aunt in Dawson, lives in nearby Dougherty County. She watched parts of the last presidential debate and said she will vote for Harris, but fears she won’t see the utmost effort this time.
“The mobilization is not as visible as it was in 2020,” Turner said. ‘There aren’t that many signs either. A lot of people don’t know what’s at stake.”
Some Black leaders in South Georgia say outreach has increased recently. This is partly because the financing came too late Hurricane Helene paused, said Ryan Brown, who recently became Harris’ regional political director for south Georgia.
“I’m seeing groups that would normally be active for 90 days becoming active for about 30 days,” Brown says.
Black Voters Matter works year-round in Georgia, and organizations founded by Abrams, Fair Count and the New Georgia Project have also targeted hard-to-reach voters.
State Sen. Freddie Powell Sims, a Democrat from Dawson, disputes the idea that Democrats are not doing enough in southwest Georgia.
“There was a lot of ground that the Democratic Party had to cover in a short period of time and I think they did a phenomenal job getting it done,” she said.
The Harris campaign said its regional operation includes nearly 70 full-time employees, 10 offices, 4,500 volunteers and more than 500 events.
Harris visited the state’s southeastern coastal region in August, visiting the city of Savannah and Liberty County on a bus tour, but she did not go west. She will campaign in Atlanta on Saturday.
Last weekend, former President Bill Clinton campaigned in southwestern and central Georgia. The Harris campaign says Ossoff will visit South Georgia later this month.
The Rev. Lorenzo Heard, a Democrat, is chairman of the county commission in Dougherty County, which includes Southwest Georgia’s largest city, Albany, an early battleground in the fight for civil rights.
Heard is particularly concerned that black men will not vote. He said overall enthusiasm had waned without other high-profile elections and not enough people were calling for turnout in the region.
“There are a lot of people we need to wake up,” Heard said. “If that crowd is asleep, Georgia has almost slipped out of our hands.”
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Data journalist Kavish Harjai contributed from Los Angeles.
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Kramon is a staff member of The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Follow Kramon on X: @charlottekramon