Thread by @TheDemocrats

Hi Twitter! I’m Karen Carter Peterson, the DNC Vice Chair of Civic Engagement and Voter Participation, & I’ll be taking over @TheDemocrats Twitter today to wrap up #BlackHistoryMonth! Today I’m highlighting black activists, past and present, who embody our values. - @TeamKCP

The 4 pillars of our #IWillVote program are Commit to Vote, Register to Vote, Protect the Vote, and Get Out the Vote. While Trump and his cronies create fake commissions to investigate problems that don’t exist, these activists are on the ground doing real work. - @TeamKCP

Evelyn & Albert Turner exemplify the first of our pillars: Commit to vote. By helping people vote with their absentee ballots, they were able to elect candidates to the school board and county commission in AL. - @TeamKCP #IWillVote

Then-U.S. Attorney Jeff Sessions tried to stop them. In 1985 Evelyn & Albert were falsely accused of altering absentee ballots. Sessions’ long history of racism was on full display: the case against them was weak, and they were found not guilty. - @TeamKCP

When Black voters commit to turning up on Election Day, amazing things happen. @KeishaBottoms and @LaToyaForNOLA were just elected mayors of Atlanta and New Orleans because they were able to engage our community in meaningful ways. - @TeamKCP

The next pillar of our #IWillVote program: Register to vote. Even after the 15th Amendment gave Black Americans the vote, Jim Crow laws prevented many Black people from even registering to vote for nearly 100 years. - @TeamKCP

Rev. George Washington Lee was martyred for registering voters in Mississippi in 1955. Lee had tried for years to register to vote, and, when he finally succeeded, he worked tirelessly to help others defeat barriers to the ballot box. - @TeamKCP

In October 2017, @iKaylaReed , @JessicaLBYRD , and @RukiaLumumba launched the Electoral Justice Project as part of the Movement for Black Lives with the goal of registering and mobilizing Black political power. - @TeamKCP #IWillVote

The 3 of them recently launched #wakandathevote, a nationwide voter registration drive held at movie theaters showing Black Panther. Now that’s a great example of activists meeting people where they are and creating change! - @TeamKCP #IWillVote

The third pillar: Protect the Vote. Thelton Henderson is a former Northern CA U.S. District Judge & was the first black attorney in the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division in the early 1960’s to investigate civil and voting rights violations by local law enforcement agencies. - @TeamKCP

.@KatCalvinLA and her organization @SpreadTheVoteUS are continuing this work today. She is a lawyer who was inspired to start Spread the Vote after seeing the devastating effects of voter ID laws. - @TeamKCP

.@SpreadtheVoteUS works to get photo IDs for people in voter ID states who can’t get them themselves. Kat: “Don't let voter suppression stop your voice from being heard. Get an ID and get to the polls." - @TeamKCP #IWillVote

Get Out the Vote is our last pillar. @desmondmeade lost his voting rights after being convicted of a felony, but now he’s fighting for fellow Floridians to get their rights back. - @TeamKCP #IWillVote

As the head of Floridians for Fair Democracy he is working to change Florida’s restoration of rights process and give the right to vote back to hundreds of thousands of people who have served their time. - @TeamKCP #IWillVote

.@desmondmeade and his volunteers have collected 1.1 million signatures to get rights restoration on the Nov. ballot, and now they are working to get out the vote. - @TeamKCP

251 days left until Election Day — I need you to get out and join me. Get registered and get your friends registered, because Black voters can make the difference in 2018: IWillVote.com #IWillVote - @TeamKCP