2024 Spring Public Forum on ZOOM

for Black Voters Matter

Saturday, March 16, 2024, 5 PM  |  A Free ZOOM Forum
with JusticeAid and ClassACT HR’73

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WATCH RECORDING ON YOUTUBE
Nothing is more fundamental to the U.S. Constitution and our democracy than the right of every citizen to vote. While approximately 66% of those eligible turned out to vote in 2020*, the one-third (approximately 77 million) who did not vote represent the highest proportion of non-voters in a presidential election in one hundred years.** How do we change this dynamic and convince citizens that their vote and their voice matters and is a tool for change?
*Pew Research Center   ** The Hill

Join us on March 16th at 5:00 PM at To the Ballot Box! Our Vote, Our Voice for a discussion on voter suppression moderated by MSNBC Host and documentarian Joy Reid with social justice activists LaTosha Brown and Cliff Albright, co-founders of Black Voters Matter. You’ll leave inspired to join the fight for voting rights. 

MEET OUR GUESTS

Joy-Ann Reid is a political analyst for MSNBC and host of “AM Joy,” which airs Saturdays and Sundays from 10 A.M. ET to noon ET. She is also the author of the book “Fracture: Barack Obama, the Clintons and the Racial Divide” (William Morrow/Harper Collins 2015), co-editor of “We Are The Change We Seek: The Speeches of Barack Obama” (Bloomsbury USA), and a columnist at The Daily Beast.

Reid was previously the host of “The Reid Report,” a daily program that offered Reid’s distinctive analysis and insight on the day’s news. Before that, Reid was the Managing Editor of theGrio.com, a daily online news and opinion platform devoted to delivering stories and perspectives that reflect and affect African-American audiences. Reid joined theGrio.com with experience as a freelance columnist for the Miami Herald and as editor of the political blog The Reid Report. She is a former talk radio producer and host for Radio One, and previously served as an online news editor for the NBC affiliate WTVJ in Miramar, FL.

 During the 2004 presidential campaign, Reid served as the Florida deputy communications director for the 527 “America Coming Together” initiative, and was a press aide in the final stretch of President Barack Obama’s Florida campaign in 2008. Reid’s columns and articles have appeared in The New York Times, The Daily Beast, New York magazine, The Guardian, the Miami Herald, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, South Florida Times and Salon.com.

Reid graduated from Harvard University in 1991 with a concentration in film, and is a 2003 Knight Center for Specialized Journalism fellow. She currently resides in Brooklyn with her husband and family. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram at @JoyAnnReid and “like” her on Facebook at Joy Reid Official.

Cliff Albright is a 2020 Soros Equality Fellow and co-founder of Black Voters Matter Fund (and BVM Capacity Building Institute) which builds community and organizational capacity related to Black voting power.

BVM received national attention in 2017 when they helped mobilize Black voters during the U.S. Senate race between Doug Jones and Roy Moore. Since then, Cliff and the BVM team have traveled throughout thirteen primarily southern states in “The Blackest Bus in America” energizing voters and exposing voter suppression.

Cliff serves as an instructor of African-American Studies at several universities. Cliff previously lived in historic Selma, Alabama, where he focused on bringing financial resources to Alabama’s blackbelt region. Cliff attended Cornell University, where he obtained his B.S. in Applied Economics and an M.P.S. in Africana Studies. He also has an M.B.A. from the University of Alabama.

Cliff has contributed articles to and been featured on MSNBC, CNN, New York Times, Blavity, The Guardian, and Full Frontal with Samantha Bee.

LaTosha Brown is an award-winning organizer, philanthropic consultant, political strategist and jazz singer with over twenty years of experience working in the non-profit and philanthropy sectors on a wide variety of issues related to political empowerment, social justice, economic development, leadership development, wealth creation and civil rights.

She is the co-founder of Black Voters Matter Fund, a power building southern based civic engagement organization that played an instrumental role in the 2017 Alabama U.S. Senate race. Ms. Brown is principal owner of TruthSpeaks Consulting, Inc., a philanthropy advisory consulting firm in Atlanta, GA. For more than 25 years, she has served as a consultant and advisor for individual donors, government, public foundations and private donors.

Throughout her career, Ms. Brown has distinguished herself as a trusted expert and resource in political strategy, rural development and special programming for a number of national and regional philanthropies. She is the founding project director of Grantmakers for Southern Progress.

JusticeAid and ClassACT ’73 are committed to sharing lessons and insights from some of America’s most influential activists on civil rights and social justice.  This Spring’s free public forum offers an opportunity for an up close and personal view of changemakers who are influencing our nation’s history.
REGISTER: TO THE BALLOT BOX

Save the Date for our spring benefit concert! May 21, 2024

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BLACK VOTERS MATTER: 2023 GRANTEE PARTNER

The goal of Black Voters Matter is to increase power in marginalized, predominantly Black communities. Black Voters Matter believes in working directly with communities to define agendas and implement solutions that create meaningful change. With this in mind, through voter engagement, policy advocacy, and organizational development/training, they seek to increase the capacity of community-based organizations working on a wide range of issues: from mass incarceration to gentrification, from healthcare to education, and more.