You are having a health emergency. You call 911. The nearest hospital is an hour away.
You are diagnosed with cancer, but it took you months to find out because you don’t have transportation to see the one primary care physician in your county.
You finally get an appointment with a specialty doctor you need to see, but the closest office is two counties over, and you cannot afford it.
Carter joined other Republicans and Democrats in voting in favor of a slimmed-down spending bill.
The Current is an inclusive nonprofit, non-partisan news organization providing in-depth watchdog journalism for Savannah and Coastal Georgia’s communities.
Lloyd Wright has worked with 10 presidents since the early 1960s and seen how both Republicans and Democrats have failed to address Black farmers’ civil rights complaints and correct institutional racism within the United States Department of Agriculture.
“Many Black farmers refer to USDA as being the last plantation, and the reason for that is, is that it really doesn’t change much from one administration to another, and in all cases, it’s not very good for Black folk,” said Wright, a Virginia-based farmer and retiree who served with the USDA for more than three decades. “There have been some [administrations] better than others.”
He knows first-hand the discrimination Black farmers faced — and the need to rectify their claims. He worked in multiple divisions throughout the years and was the director of the Office of Civil Rights from 1997 to 1998. He came out of retirement to serve as a consultant during former President Barack Obama’s first administration.
As President Joe Biden’s term comes to a close, many Black farmers are bracing for another four years of stagnation on the issues that have long plagued them. Many argue that progress has been insufficient, with a lack of accountability for the secretary of agriculture and limited oversight of local systems that distribute federal funds.
This week, hundreds of Black farmers are gathering at the National Black Growers Council annual convening in Charleston, South Carolina, to provide resources and education to ensure Black farmers aren’t left behind. And with Inauguration Day steadily approaching on Jan. 20, the farmers have a lot to strategize over during this year’s convening.
Trump’s Cabinet picks have also raised eyebrows. Stephen Miller, who’s expected to be the president-elect’s deputy chief of staff for policy, successfully blocked the $4 billion debt relief geared toward Black farmers during Biden’s administration. Trump also nominated Brooke Rollins, the CEO of the right-wing think tank America First Policy Institute, as the next agriculture secretary. Rollins would manage agriculture and welfare programs, including food quality, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, and free school lunches, which have been vital for shrinking food insecurity and helping Black communities combat poverty.
Read More: Justice Has Been Delayed for Black Farmers, and They’re Looking to the Next President for Answers
Over the course of several administrations, Black farmers say the systemic problems they face — particularly within the USDA — have gone largely unaddressed. Under Trump’s previous tenure, there was little to no progress, with only 0.1% of emergency relief allocated to them. With the prospect of continued inaction, many fear that discrimination and unequal treatment at the USDA will persist for years to come.
In addition to Trump being back in the White House, Wright’s biggest concern is a narrow Republican majority in the House and three-seat majority in the Senate, and what legislation will be enacted to help, or hurt, farmers.
“For Black farmers, things that weren’t good before won’t get any better, but they may not get worse,” Wright told Capital B.
He added: “It is not the fact that we’re going to have Trump in, it’s the fact that we lost the House and the Senate. It may be more difficult to get things into appropriation bills.”
While Trump promised to “end the war on the American farmer,” his mission excluded farmers of color. Through his $22 billion Market Facilitation Program, which was designed to help farmers directly affected by foreign tariffs from China, nearly 100% of the bailout payments benefited white farmers, with an overwhelming majority going to those who are upper-middle class and wealthy.
At the time, Sonny Perdue — the former Georgia governor who passed a tax bill to save his business and purchased land from a developer who he appointed to the state’s economic development board — served as the agriculture secretary. The program lacked oversight, failing to make sure the money went to farmers in need, according to the Government Accountability Office. The USDA’s internal auditors found the agency misspent more than $800 million, which included ineligible farms.
Farmers continued to feel the stronghold of the Trump administration even after he left office.
Only months into Biden’s term, he passed the American Rescue Plan Act, which included a $4 billion debt relief program for farmers of color. However, they never got to see the relief. America First Legal — founded by Trump’s former adviser Miller — sued the USDA on behalf of Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller for excluding white people from the relief. Banks also fought back against the program.
As a result, it fell through.
Trump also considered Sid Miller as the next secretary of Agriculture for the USDA. Ultimately, he nominated Rollins, who would be only the second woman to serve in this position.
Read More: Racial Discrimination Lawsuit Against Federal Debt Relief Program Dismissed
Wright suspects things will only get worse, especially on the local level with the county committees and with the civil rights division. For years, the Office of Civil Rights, of which Wright once served as director, has been in disarray. If a local county committee discriminates against Black farmers and they submit a complaint, “it’s not going anywhere because they don’t process them,” he said.
“You don’t have to hit us in the eyes every day to get our attention when it’s very clear in our history that, given enough time, folk will figure out how not to do something that’s designed to help Black folk,” Wright added.
Whether you’re a Democrat or Republican, it’s imperative that the next administration provides assistance to farmers because right now it’s stressful to be a Black farmer, said Julius Tillery, a fifth-generation cotton farmer in North Carolina who operates BlackCotton.
“It’s a tough time. We’re having a rough year as well, but I think we could be able to make it through this year,” Tillery said. “We’ve been through worse, so let’s make the best of what’s coming next.”
Though Trump hadn’t done much for Black farmers, in Wright’s eyes, Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris hadn’t done much better. He pointed to Biden’s appointment of Tom Vilsack as secretary of agriculture. He previously served two terms under Obama. During that time, Vilsack failed to address outstanding civil rights complaints and staked a claim that he helped increase the number of Black farmers and reduced funding disparities, which was inaccurate.
“I’m sure if Vilsack stayed secretary of agriculture and if the Congress had stayed Democrat, things wouldn’t have been great, but it would have been better,” said Wright.
Under Vilsack’s leadership, USDA employees foreclosed on Black farmers at a higher rate than on any other racial group between 2006 and 2016. The department approved fewer loans for Black farmers than under President Bush, and “then used census data in misleading ways to burnish its record on civil rights,” according to an investigation by The Counter.
Also, Vilsack also played a role in the resignation of Shirley Sherrod, former Georgia state director of rural development for the USDA, whose remarks at an NAACP event were taken out of context. Though Vilsack later apologized and offered her another position, she declined.
“To be honest with you, [the USDA] will continue to dismantle and be as dysfunctional as it relates to Blacks [under Trump], as was done under the Democrats — with the Clinton administration being the exception. And whereas Obama probably meant well, he gave us a secretary who was not very sensitive at all to Black issues,” Wright said.
These are a few of many reasons why Wright and others are relieved Vilsack won’t serve again.
Lawrence Lucas, a longtime advocate of Black farmers and president of the USDA Coalition of Minority Employees, said he expects to see a “quick abundance of class actions” during the Trump administration filed against the USDA because of the failures of the current administration, such as the backlog of civil rights complaints that haven’t been addressed.
“I talked to farmers who are concerned about what’s going to happen next, and they are very pessimistic about the Trump administration helping them, but they’ve also been very disappointed with the Biden administration and the way they handle civil rights at USDA,” Lucas added. “It’s very shameful that much of the expectations we had going into a Biden administration has been very disappointing.”
Despite the criticism of Biden, he did a “decent job” of trying to get assistance to underserved farmers, which include Black folks who were locked out of resources during the Trump administration, said DeShawn Blanding, senior Washington representative for the Food and Environment Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists.
Blanding pointed to the Inflation Reduction Act’s $2.2 billion Discrimination Financial Assistance Program for distressed borrowers who experienced discrimination in USDA farm loan programs prior to 2021. Rather than implement the $4 billion debt relief, Congress approved this new initiative. About 43,000 farmers, ranchers, and forest landowners received funds from the DFAP in July. U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio, the vice president-elect, suggested in August the program is racist against white farmers.
Farmer Dewayne Goldmon, also the senior adviser for racial equity to the Secretary of Agriculture, acknowledged the hardships farmers face today. The cost of production is exceeding revenue and because of input costs and lower commodity prices, it’s difficult to have cash flow, he said.
“You might have heard the expression when white farmers get a cold, Black farmers get pneumonia? Those who are struggling the most tend to be more deeply impacted,” he added.
Goldmon emphasized the changes the Biden administration has made, ranging from supporting the Equity Commission and 1890 land grant institutions to shortening loan applications and removing bias from the lending process. The Department of Agriculture must continue to partner with community-based organizations and universities and build on the work of the previous administration to ensure equity, said Goldmon, who has been farming for 27 years.
“The situation that the Biden-Harris administration, that Secretary Vilsack inherited, didn’t come in one or 10 years,” he added. “When discrimination rears its legs ahead, then the discrimination suffered by previous generations has to be overcome by current and future generations, and that’s going to continue. Folks are just going to have to get accustomed to advocating to bring it forward — creative and effective solutions to deal with prior discrimination.”
Some farmers told Capital B they are in need of emergency support now, and no matter who is in office, they still fear they won’t get the adequate support they need, said Charles Madlock, an urban farmer in New York. As a result, some may be forced to shut down their farms in the near future.
So, what is the way forward?
Madlock, who started his journey in 2022, decided to turn from farming to advocacy when he learned about the challenges small farmers face to access resources and markets. Also, because he had a prior drug conviction, he was ineligible to receive any resources from USDA for up to five years.
The 40-year-old says he isn’t sure what policies will be passed or implemented under another Trump administration, but his focus is educating a new generation of Black farmers as well as Black communities.
“If they really want to recruit Black farmers … you can kill somebody and you still get funding. You can rob a bank and still get funding, but anything that’s associated with drugs, you can’t get federal funding. And funding is a barrier that will prevent Black people from becoming new farmers,” he said. “I could either try to become a farmer and take on farming full time, or I can try to educate my community and build more Black farmers because that’s kind of sort of really what we need within our community.”
Blanding and the Union of Concerned Scientists are “ready for a rapid response to keep this administration accountable and try and make it transparent about what they’re doing, and also holding Congress accountable to the policies that they put forward.”
“We’ve seen what a Trump 1.0 administration looks like. We’re cautious of what a 2.0 will look like … we’re trying to encourage Biden to institutionalize and preserve the work they’ve done … and that’s really our focus from now until January.”
The post Decades of USDA Racism Leave Black Farmers Fighting for Equality appeared first on Capital B News.
North Atlantic right whale calving season began with a calf sighting off South Carolina Nov. 24.
The Current is an inclusive nonprofit, non-partisan news organization providing in-depth watchdog journalism for Savannah and Coastal Georgia’s communities.
Amanda David felt a wave of devastation as reality sank in that former President Donald Trump would lead the country again. Yet, the past four years have felt as if he had never left.
She’s been battling ongoing violent threats, racism, and harassment from her white neighbor in Ithaca, New York. The college town and farming community more than 200 miles away from New York City prides itself on being progressive, with Tompkins County residents backing Vice President Kamala Harris and securing wins for Democrats across the board.
It’s a facade, David says. The racism and segregation is more subtle in the city, where Black people are only 5% of the nearly 31,400 residents. Mere miles away, she recalls seeing Confederate and Trump flags flying high.
It’s not just the rural South or conservative regions — Black people in rural areas across the country don’t feel safe. As David and others are still processing the election results, they told Capital B that another Trump administration will only perpetuate ongoing issues over the next four years. Long neglected by both his campaign and previous administration, they see little hope for change in their persistent struggles: limited resources, weak civic infrastructure, and constant threats of violence.
Sekou Franklin, political scientist and professor in the Department of Political Science at Middle Tennessee State University, points out that part of the issue is the erasure of Black rural communities in American politics, and how the policies don’t adequately address the diversity of rural Black America — whether it’s the Arkansas, Tennessee, or Mississippi Deltas, the Georgia Black Belt, or the Gullah Geechee communities along the coasts.
Franklin suspects in states like Tennessee with Republican-dominated legislatures, lawmakers will pass substantial bills that will “legitimately” hurt Black communities. When it comes to opposing laws or fighting back against law enforcement officials, for example, many rural communities don’t have the infrastructure or extensive resources to do so.
“As bad and as tough as it may be in some of the urban communities, we have a little bit more of a grassroots infrastructure. We got young activists. We got civil rights leaders. We have attorneys,” Franklin said. “When you go to rural communities, where there’s brain drain and alienation, there’s no equivalent of a [Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee] group there.”
The election reminded Democratic Mayor W. Mondale Robinson of Enfield, North Carolina, of his own experiences as a Southern mayor who tore down the Confederate monument and received death threats from white supremacists for doing so.
“The reality is that America’s love for whiteness is on display at every turn, and this was no different,” he told Capital B. “I’m reminded that things of old are not old at all. They are around the corner and right in our face every day.”
In a crucial battleground state, North Carolina, voters there backed all Democratic candidates down ballot, but still voted for Trump to be president.
Back in New York, when David moved to Ithaca in 2020, she set out to build community gardens and teach herbal medicine and land stewardship through her organization Rootwork Herbals.
Immediately after she arrived, David said her neighbor constantly yelled at her kids, calling them the N-word while trespassing on her property, which consists of a home, community garden, and area for her animals. Despite several protective orders and several police reports, he continued the racist bullying.
“Anytime I felt threatened … I had this group of people that I would call, and they would come over because I had to do something to protect myself. The law wasn’t doing it,” David recalled.
With nowhere to turn, Central New York Fair Housing filed a federal housing discrimination lawsuit on behalf of David against Robert Whittaker Jr. in 2023. She’s also fundraising through GoFundMe to relocate her family and business, which she had to shut down due to safety concerns.
In Michigan, another key battleground state that Harris lost to Trump, Dilla Scott faced a lack of community support as her family experienced years of harassment and racism. She and her children moved to the small town of Cadillac in 2005 in search of better housing, becoming part of the 2% Black population. While in grade school, Dilla’s daughter, Angel Scott, was bullied by a white boy on the bus. One day, he even told her he wanted to burn a cross on a Black person’s lawn. When Dilla reported the incident, the school district failed to respond to take action, she said.
The bigotry came to a head in 2020 when one of her sons, Alex Marshall, was racially profiled by the police, which led to him being arrested and charged with disorderly conduct and obstructing a police officer. The county prosecutor later dropped those charges.
“In my experience from being in Cadillac, the white people thought they were entitled to do whatever they wanted to a Black person,” Scott said. “I think Trump had a lot to do with it, the influence of people mistreating Black people and its racist acts.”
After that traumatic experience, Dilla’s home became infested with rodents and her landlord refused to act. She sought help from several agencies, including the local housing commission and health department, but received no support. The 68-year-old fell ill and discovered she had 22 ticks on her body. She had enough, but at the time, the single mom couldn’t “just up and move. You know, you’re trying to survive,” she told Capital B.
The decades of lack of local support served as a reason for why she chose not to vote, feeling things wouldn’t change.
“As far as I’m concerned, it’s not a politician that has not lied,” Scott said. “I have no reason to vote for man. I vote for God.”
Others have used the racism they’ve faced as a catalyst to improve their community.
Delbert Jackson grew up in a predominately white, rural town in east Texas. Unlike Ithaca, Center, Texas is a majority-Republican town, and its racist roots trace back to the 1920s when Lige Daniels, a Black teenager, was lynched in the main square at the courthouse. When Jackson returned to Center in 2010, he noticed the racism wasn’t hidden anymore — it was public for all to see. He noticed Confederate flags displayed during parades. He also stumbled upon the private club called the Sundowner, “a discreet and exclusive establishment … offering a unique social experience for its members.”
Read More: Locked Up and Locked Out
He kept digging, and learned the Little Pony League changed its name to the Dixie League. The local activist knew he had to get involved when he found out white families participate in an annual ceremony to hang blue ribbons on the tree where Daniels was killed. For years now, he’s requested the local city council to relocate the historical marker of Daniels from the Black neighborhood to the courthouse grounds. The request was denied, but he’s still working to get it moved.
“They didn’t like the language that was used on the marker that’s at the location in the Black community. They told us that if anybody wanted to read the narrative that’s on that marker, then they can go to the Black neighborhood and read that narrative, but they wouldn’t allow that language on their historical Courthouse Square,” Jackson said.
In a place like Center, there is no local chapter of the NAACP or civil rights groups to support Jackson in his efforts. When asked why people aren’t getting involved, Jackson explains that most Black people “want to just mingle and merge, stay in their own churches or whatever. It’s business as usual. It’s not the same Black community that was here during Reconstruction or pre-Civil rights era.”
Though Trump will assume office, Jackson knows Black folks, particularly in the South, “won’t go down lightly.” While local white Democrats blame Harris’ loss on economics, Jackson emphasizes the history of racism and white supremacy is why Trump is back in office.
“That’s the American mindset. It’s regressive. It’s always been here, and it’s still here,” he added.
While they will keep fighting locally, Black rural residents urge the Democratic Party to invest and organize in these communities year-round, not just during election cycles.
Robinson, the founder of the Black Male Voter Project, emphasized the need for the Democrats to come to grips that their policies aren’t translating with how folks vote, and having celebrities and influencers speak on behalf of Black communities doesn’t work.
Read More: The Powerful, Unsung Role Black Rural Voters Can Play in Our Elections
“When you have [a large percentage] of Black men not voting at all, or only one of the last four or five federal elections, that’s a critique of the tactics, not of the demographic,” Robinson said. “We have to … rethink what it means to invest in trusted messengers outside of Washington, D.C., and invest in state level politics, local level politics in a way that we’ve never done, not in modern times.”
Over the next four years, Democratic Mayor Dwan Walker of Aliquippa, Pennsylvania, agreed the focus should be on local and state races to “put us in the best position to keep what we have and try to gain more if we can.”
“The wars are fought in Philly and Pittsburgh and Erie, but the battles are won in these small areas like Aliquippa” he said. “By getting a lot of those people out to vote in these rural areas, you could neutralize some of the areas that you don’t get that’s not a stronghold.”
But, the policies must align with low-income and working-class people, which is an area he felt the Democratic Party missed the mark. Even with Harris’ economic plan, which included $25,000 down payment for first-time homeowners, some people questioned, “How do I even get there?”
“Like my Dad always said, ‘There’s got to be an avenue to success. Don’t show me something and not tell me how to get there.’ Say, ‘Hey, we’re gonna help you with your credit. We’re gonna give you some support.’ Show me what my insulators are,” Walker said. “Who’s gonna protect me when [or] if I fall? What if I lose my job?”
Beyond organizing, the moment calls for taking a moment to walk away and connect with your community, said Dr. Kenya Johns, a professor and licensed professional counselor. She’s also the mayor of Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania, and recently lost the bid to become the next state senator for Pennsylvania District 13. Even Johns is still processing the outcome.
“This is my motto since it happened Wednesday. Everyone, cry today. Get your tears out. Get your sadness out. Because Thursday, we got to get to work, and that’s exactly what I feel,” she said.
The post Rural Black America Sees Little Hope for Change in Another Trump Term appeared first on Capital B News.
The Current’s reporters are visiting precincts in Coastal Georgia throughout Election Day to talk to voters. Here’s what we’re hearing.
The Current is an inclusive nonprofit, non-partisan news organization providing in-depth watchdog journalism for Savannah and Coastal Georgia’s communities.
For years, Garrett Snuggs questioned why the predominantly white town council of Wadesboro, North Carolina, didn’t reflect its population — 69% of which is Black.
In the rural town of 5,000, about 52 miles away from Charlotte, he noticed that many Black folks, particularly youth and men, were disengaged from the political process.
That changed in 2022 when the 45-year-old met Cynthia Wallace, co-founder and executive director of New Rural Project, a civic engagement nonprofit. Wallace conducted a rural listening tour and focus groups in the eastern part of the state, and learned that many rural voters there simply felt “unheard and unseen” and didn’t have power.
The conversations sparked a collaboration between Wallace and Snuggs called the Barbershop Conversations: F.A.D.E (Fruitful African American Discussions on Empowerment), which brought nearly 60 Black men together to discuss their top concerns and voting challenges. It prompted them to attend community meetings and join school boards. Last November, Snuggs, the longtime barber, instructor, and sports bar owner, won a local council seat and garnered the most votes of any candidate. The town also made history in that election, electing its first majority-Black council.
“There has never been more than one African American on our council at one time ever, and we currently have three,” Snuggs said. “We’re getting out there — engaging folk, [and] informing them of just how important and how impactful local politics and government plays into their everyday lives.”
Black rural voters in Wadesboro illustrate the influence that engaged and informed rural voters can have, especially in local and state elections, which matter just as much as federal ones, if not more. While Black rural voters have a desire to become a more influential voting bloc nationally, obstacles exist, including the lack of trust in local and state officials in the red states where many live, misinformation, the Democratic Party’s messaging, and a noticeable absence of candidates actively campaigning in rural areas.
“The strength of Black rural voters lies in their power on the state and local levels,” said Dara Gaines, rural researcher and visiting professor at the University of Arkansas. “The race at the top of the ticket has inspired a lot of people who were previously planning to sit out, and they are looking for a way to do something. The down-ballot races are going to feel the weight of the rural Black vote.”
Despite their loyalty to the Democratic Party, rural voters often feel overlooked and neglected by both major parties, especially on the national level. While they’re making marginal gains, they still haven’t achieved full political power, meaning the candidates they vote for — often Black or Democrats — don’t get elected. The GOP still has a stronghold in rural counties. This dynamic exacerbates feelings of disengagement, resulting in low voter engagement.
Capital B spoke to rural organizers, candidates, and elected officials in two battleground states — North Carolina and Pennsylvania — as well as in Arkansas and Virginia to discuss the opportunities and barriers facing rural voters.
It’s often cited that rural voters tend to lean conservative and Republican. Since the 2000s, several rural states shifted their support to the Republican Party on all levels of government, from state houses to Congress. Today, the Republican Party holds a 25-point advantage over the Democratic Party among rural voters, according to the Pew Research Center.
However, a recent study by Cornell University found that this is not the reality for rural Black voters who, like most urban Black voters, supported Democrats at rates of 90% or more in the last four presidential elections — even though Black support for the party has waned nationally.
In some places, the diversity of rural America hasn’t been reflected in local and state elections. Paolo Cremidis, former rural caucus chair for the New York State Democratic Party, saw this, and between 2015 and 2020, the caucus was able to elect 85 Democratic candidates (who were either LGBTQ+ or people of color) across upstate New York.
“We noticed that folks who won were able to lean into their diversity to overcome culture wars and outran the top of the ticket because of it,” he said.
Cremidis and five other Democratic officials from upstate New York started The Outrun Coalition in 2020, which is now a network of over 500 local Democratic elected officials across 17 states, he said. They started the coalition to ensure elected officials better reflect the growing diversity of rural America. In August, the organization hosted a Rural Americans for Kamala Harris call, where thousands joined and raised more than $22,000.
In the 2022 midterm elections, where states saw record high voter turnout, rural voters helped usher in candidates, most notably in Georgia, which elected its first Black U.S. senator, Raphael Warnock; and in North Carolina, where Diamond Staton-Williams, a Black nurse, and Ray Jeffers, a Black farmer, secured seats in the state House. It’s these races that can help “purple states become a lot bluer, and more Democrats get elected to Congress, state legislatures, and local public offices in red states as well as blue ones,” as one author and professor wrote.
“Oftentimes, rural Americans are told they’re blue dots in a red sea. That’s not true. At the end of the day, one blue dot in a red sea might look like one blue dot, but enough blue dots together form an ocean, and enough oceans put out fires that make our reality better for our communities,” Cremidis said. “This isn’t just about making sure Vice President Kamala Harris becomes president; it’s about breaking super majorities in red states.”
If rural areas are making gains, why are rural counties overwhelmingly Republican? Well, the answer depends on who you ask. The number of rural Black voters turning out is not enough to improve the odds for Democrats. White progressive voter turnout would also need to increase for Democrats to win more.
Republicans dominate because of a combination of nonvoting and restrictive voting laws, said Chris Jones, co-founder of Dirt Road Democrats PAC, a political action committee for rural areas. When he ran for governor against Republican Sarah Huckebee Sanders in 2022, about 900,000 people voted — whereas 1.2 million people didn’t, he said. Last year, Arkansas had the lowest voter turnout and registration rates nationwide.
While voter registration is up by 12,500 across Arkansas, a federal appeals court dealt a recent blow to voters when it reinstated Arkansas’ wet signature rule, a law that mandates voters to submit their voter registration forms with handwritten signatures with pen and ink. This legislation was in response to an online voter tool, created by Get Loud Arkansas, a civic engagement organization that registered hundreds of young voters. Separately, the Arkansas Supreme Court upheld four voting restrictions passed by Republicans, which includes changes to a voter ID law and deadlines for voters to return absentee ballots.
Similar election-related laws have been passed in other states. This year, in at least 21 states, voters will face restrictions they’ve never encountered in previous election cycles, whereas voters in 28 states will face new restrictions that weren’t in place in 2020, according to the Brennan Center for Justice. Additionally, Republicans in battleground states have filed multiple lawsuits challenging aspects of mail-in voting, which is popular among rural voters.
Unfortunately, the efforts to stymie Black political power won’t stop, Gaines, the rural researcher, said. For example, in Florida, the state director of elections instructed local officials to investigate voter rolls based on a list emailed from an election denier. Officials in Travis County, Texas, filed a federal lawsuit against state Attorney General Ken Paxton and Secretary of State Jane Nelson for blocking voter registration efforts. And in Arkansas, there was an attempt to completely shut down one of the busiest early voting locations in Crittenden County and only have Election Day voting.
“If you know you’re a person that has experienced some type of political violence before, or you’ve seen what political violence does in a place like where you might live, then you might be less likely to step out and go vote or step out and be vocal about something,” Gaines said. “We also have to be very aware that people don’t live in these places in a vacuum, right? Everything is connected to the past and what people’s former experiences have been. If we’re serious about supporting and protecting rural Black voters, we have to make sure that they will be protected and supported all the way up from registration to the time they cast their vote.”
In the words of Dwan Walker who became the first Black mayor of Aliquippa, Pennsylvania, in 2011, “You got to be in these places in order for you to affect change. You got to go back to old school politics. You just can’t court us in November, and think we’re going to turn out for you.”
Beaver County, where Aliquippa is, had been a Democratic stronghold, but that changed in 2008. Still, Walker, who served as a delegate to the Democratic National Convention, believes Harris and running mate Tim Walz visiting Aliquippa in August will pay off at the polls. This week, both Harris and former president Donald Trump campaigned in Pennsylvania. On Tuesday, Walz formally unveiled the details of Harris’ agenda for rural America at a campaign stop in western Pennsylvania.
“I can’t remember another presidential [candidate] that ever paid this much attention to rural America as this campaign is doing; it’s a beautiful thing to see because I don’t feel forgotten right now,” Walker said. “[They told us] we want all rural communities to have a seat at the table. And no one has ever invited us in like they’re inviting us in.”
If candidates, or their representatives, don’t meet directly with rural voters to talk about voting or their vision, those voters may stay home, said Alexsis Rodgers, political director at Black to the Future Action Fund. About 42% of Black urban and rural voters in three states sat out of the 2022 elections because they felt “uninformed about the candidates they were being asked to vote for,” according to a December 2022 report by Black to the Future Action Fund and HIT Strategies. The authors consider this as “another form of voter suppression … the lack of information about elections and the people who are running to represent you.”
“Rural Black voters across the South have the power to deliver the White House. They have shown up in margins before,” Rodgers said. “But, they just don’t feel like they’ve seen the Democratic Party necessarily deliver on the ideas, and they know Republican candidates have been talking about issues they don’t agree with. The real power of Black voters is that they want to see elected officials or candidates deliver on results.”
Showing up is only part of the battle. Messaging is another.
In the case of organizers and candidates, there is a lack of resources to build a strong infrastructure to support Democratic candidates and rural voters.
Jade Harris, a 26-year-old substitute teacher who ran last year as the Democratic candidate for Virginia’s newly drawn 3rd Senate District, agreed it’s difficult for candidates to run without infrastructure or resources.
Before running for Senate, Harris served as a city council member in Glasgow, Virginia, a 76% white town of nearly 1,400 people. At the end of the term, she ran in a special election to secure a seat for the state House of Delegates. She campaigned for three weeks with limited campaign resources. Although she lost, she performed better than both parties thought she would, she said.
“Everyone said I was going to underperform, but it turns out that election was kind of the first one post-Dobbs [the U.S. Supreme Court abortion decision overturning Roe v. Wade] and we saw that trend of Democrats overperforming,” Harris said. “I was like, ‘Wow.’ This little special election in rural Virginia gave the nation a forecast of what to expect.”
Following that race, she gained more resources, so she decided to run for Senate, which she lost, but still overperformed for a Democrat. She also served as a delegate at the Democratic National Convention, an honor bestowed on by the state and congressional leaders.
Gaines, the professor and researcher, mentioned the record-breaking $1 billion the Harris campaign has raised, but the funding doesn’t trickle down to the local parties or civic engagement groups. She referenced how people spend resources on registration drives, but “consistently drop the ball” when it’s time to get them to the polls. Additionally, the “show up when it’s time for elections” strategy isn’t working, she said.
There must be long term strategies to build up viable candidates.
That’s Wallace’s mission. Whether through front porch talks or Beauty Salon Conversations: C.U.R.L.S (Cultivating Unified Relationships with Ladies for Success), she wants to equip voters with tools and resources to step into their power.
“A big part of the work we’re doing is to empower these rural communities of color to change their own communities and know that they have that power,” Wallace said. “If you’ve been in a town for decades, even though you were the majority that was being led by the minority, you kind of feel, you don’t have power.”
As a citizen, Snuggs is concerned about the potential outcome of the upcoming election. But, he won’t allow the obstacles to stop him from engaging and educating others.
“It’s ridiculous to think that we have arrived as a people and still have work left to be done,” Snuggs said. “The fight is still ongoing, and we got to do something to reverse this.”
Correction: A photo caption in a previous version of this story misidentified Garrett Snuggs.
The post Why the Political Power of Black Rural Voters Is Often Invisible appeared first on Capital B News.
Small-town politics can get uncomfortable when you’re likely to run into a candidate or their relative or a member of their campaign at church or the grocery store.
The Current is an inclusive nonprofit, non-partisan news organization providing in-depth watchdog journalism for Savannah and Coastal Georgia’s communities.
Dozens of people were killed across multiple states this week as Hurricane Helene swept across parts of the Southeastern United States, bringing heavy rains and a 15-foot storm surge.
Coastal towns and cities in Florida were devastated when the Category 4 hurricane made landfall, but communities inland bore a similar brunt as the storm carved a path through North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Tennessee.
“Turn around, don’t drown,” North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper urged drivers in a press conference.
At least 42 people have died from the storm. As of Friday, Florida reported seven deaths. Georgia, meanwhile, reported 15, and South Carolina, 17. In both of the latter states, most of the known fatalities were from falling trees and debris. North Carolina reported two deaths, including a car crash that killed a 4-year-old girl after a road flooded.
Atlanta received 11.12 inches of rain in 48 hours, breaking its previous record of 9.59 inches in the same time period from 1886, according to Bill Murphey, Georgia’s state climatologist. More than 1 million Georgia residents also lost power in the storm, particularly in southern and eastern parts of the state.
In western North Carolina, officials sounded alarms and went door-to-door evacuating residents south of the Lake Lure Dam in Rutherford County after the National Weather Service warned that a dam failure was “imminent.” Emergency crews also conducted more than 50 swift water rescues across the region, with one sheriff’s department warning it could not respond to all of the 911 calls due to flooded roads. The North Carolina Department of Transportation warned on social media that “all roads in Western NC should be considered closed” due to flooding from Helene.
In Tennessee, more than 50 people were stranded on the roof of a hospital due to heavy flooding and had to be rescued by helicopter. Residents of Cocke County in Tennessee were also asked to evacuate after reports that a separate dam could fail, although officials later said the dam failure had been a false alarm. In South Carolina, the National Weather Service said the storm was “one of the most significant weather events… in the modern era.”
The hurricane’s widespread flooding was worsened by climate change, scientists told Grist. Hurricane Helene was an unusually large storm with an expansive reach. After forming in the Caribbean, it traveled over extremely warm ocean waters in the Gulf of Mexico that enabled the storm to intensify more quickly than it may have otherwise. In fact, Helene went from a relatively weak tropical storm to a Category 4 in just two days. Warmer air also holds more moisture, supercharging the storm’s water content and leading to more rapid rainfall and intense flooding.
“When that enhanced moisture comes up and hits terrain like the Appalachian Mountains,” said University of Hawaiʻi meteorology professor Steve Businger, “it results in very, very high rainfall rates, exceptionally high rainfall rates and that unfortunately results in a lot of flash flooding.”
Shel Winkley, a meteorologist at the scientific group Climate Central, said research has shown that the Gulf’s current extra-warm ocean temperatures were made up to 500 times more likely with climate change. “One of the things that we’re seeing with these big storms, especially as they seem to become more frequent, is that they’re no longer natural disasters, but that they’re unnatural disasters,” Winkley said. “It’s not just a normal weather system anymore.”
Hurricanes are naturally occuring, of course, but the conditions that led to Helene’s severity — its rapid intensification and heavy rainfall — were partially driven by warmer ocean and atmospheric temperatures from the burning of fossil fuels. “There is a fingerprint of climate change in that process,” Winkley said.
“This summer was record warm globally and there was a record amount of water vapor in the global atmosphere,” said Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles, or UCLA. Both factors contributed to what the Southeastern U.S. experienced this week. “This is one of the more significant flood events in the U.S. in recent memory.”
Initial estimates for the storm’s damage to homes, businesses, and infrastructure range between $15 billion and $26 billion, the New York Times reported. Businger said he expects the enormous loss to fuel more conversations about the precarity of the existing property insurance system. “The cost to society is becoming extravagant,” he said.
Scientists noted that the fact that the storm’s winds increased by 55 miles per hour in the 24 hours before it made landfall also made it deadlier.
“It was so strong and moving so fast it just didn’t have time to weaken very much before it made it far inland,” Swain said. Rapid intensification is particularly dangerous, he said, because people often make decisions on how to prepare for storms and whether or not to evacuate based on how bad they appear to be initially.
“It was one of the faster intensifying storms on record,” Swain said. “This is not a fluke. We should expect to see more rapidly intensifying hurricanes in a warming climate.”
This story was originally published by Grist with the headline After battering coastal towns, Hurricane Helene causes deadly flooding across five states on Sep 27, 2024.
2019 – 2024: An interactive map of five years of school gun violence in Georgia.
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