The red fort of Georgia has not been conquered in one day by Democrats; it took years of struggle and hard work from many sections of society, especially Black women of Georgia. The Black women of Georgia invested their days and nights in strengthening the Democratic roots in Georgia.
There are several deserving stories of these women who dedicated their routines to win Georgia for the Democrats. To win the right to vote for every Georgian, they worked tirelessly to make sure that the people of Georgia could vote in the general elections as well as in the runoffs.
This is the beauty of democracy, where hard work pays off no matter what the condition is. Republicans held Georgia since 1992 through various techniques of voter suppression and voter fraud, and Democrats shattered the Republicans ranks in Georgia in 2020 with a combination of strategies.
Stacey Abrams and the other women showed intent and realized this strategy of voter suppression during her governor’s race and decided to curb it. One after the other, women joined her group as they all gathered to end the Republican regime.
How did Georgia turn blue due to these Black women of Georgia in the 2020 elections and the runoff elections? What are the contributions of these women to voter registration? Let’s have a look.
Black Women of Georgia Who Conquered the State
The work in Georgia was initiated decades before President-elect Joe Biden flipped the state. In this regard, the most prominent name is Stacey Abrams, but following her, other Black women have been working to make this dream come true.
Felicia Davis: A Women of Crisis
Felicia Davis hoped to flip Georgia during the dark times. She worked to organize and create political awareness in the masses of Clayton County. She even paid teenagers, who worked with her in distributing literature and running awareness campaigns.
In Georgia, the majority of the Black population is Democrats, most of whom are African-Americans. The real problem in Georgia for Democrats was to create awareness among the people about their voting rights and protect them.
For decades, Black women like Davis have been asking the Democratic Party to invest in Georgia, but they always saw it as an unconquerable fortress. Despite this, these women from the African-American community carried on their work, registered new voters, created awareness, and engaged themselves in a long-term political battle.
Nse Ufot: A Wall against Voter Suppression
Nse Ufot leads the New Georgia Project and has been engaged in efforts to increase voter turnout in Georgia. She believes that the Democratic leaders who are praising the Democratic win in Georgia are not aware of the hard work these Black women have been doing for decades.
Groups like the Democratic National Committee and Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee have been leading efforts against voter suppression of Black women in Georgia. Today, just because of them, Georgia is a blue state.
Deborah Scott: The Organizer of Voters
Deborah Scott, the founder of the Georgia Stand Up project, started the group in 2004 to focus on grass-roots organization of voters in Georgia. She had no help from the Democratic Party or any other donors, yet she managed to keep going to win essential seats for Democrats.
Helen Butler: A Women to Pull Voters out of Their Homes
Another name worth discussing is Helen Butler, who has been working to increase voter turnout of African-Americans, Latinos, Asian- Americans, and college students. Butler is the executive director of the Georgia Coalition for the People’s Agenda. This group has been engaged in looking after African-American communities and creating political awareness among them.
Finally, everyone knows the name of Stacey Abrams now, as she was the main figure of the struggle.
Many experts believe that the nomination of Kamala Harris for the vice president was the turning point for Georgia. It motivated the Black women who have been working on the political agenda, as they saw hope in Vice President-elect Kamala Harris.
Georgia: A Hard Nut Finally Cracked
Democrats gave up on southern states, so this historic win of Joe Biden in Georgia was a surprise to many.
The State of Georgia has been a center of voter suppression in the United States. Many African-Americans in the state recognize themselves as Democrats, but still, they were unable to vote due to voter suppression tactics used by the Republican administration of the state.
Activists, some of whom are already mentioned above, have been running campaigns to curb voter suppression in Georgia, and recent victories are the fruit of the tree that they have been taking care of.
According to exit polls, 92 percent of the Black female voters voted for President-elect Joe Biden in the presidential election. This would have been even below 50 percent if Stacey Abrams and Black female leaders had not run their campaigns supporting Biden.
According to the Pew research center, the state of Georgia has witnessed an increase of five percent in its population of people of color since 2000. Similarly, the Latino population grew by three percent. Meanwhile, the state lost ten percent of its eligible white voters.
LaTosha Brown, the founder of the Atlanta-based Black Voters Matter Fund, believes that the voter turnout of Georgia in the presidential election and the Senate runoff elections would never have been possible without the work done by Black women and other advocacy groups.
Despite so much hard work done by these Black women of Georgia, their efforts were not recognized by the top leadership of Democrats, which is an alarming sign, as these unsung heroes of Georgia deserve applause where nobody else does.
Eli is a Political Data Scientist with over thirty years of experience in Data Engineering, Analytics, and Digital Marketing. Eli uses his expertise to give the latest information and distinctive analysis on US Political News, US Foreign Affairs, Human Rights, and Racial Justice equipping readers with the inequivalent knowledge.