Apr 12, 2021
When Georgia’s state legislature enacted Senate Bill 2020, an unabashedly regressive voter suppression law, it revealed more than an assault on Black and low-income voters. Governor Brian Kemp was making a direct attack on Black Voters Matters, the nonprofit that partners with Black voters to make real change happen, particularly in rural southern states. This legislation is retaliation against BVM’s historic win in Georgia, which sent Senators Warnock and Ossoff to the U.S. Senate. It reveals a white backlash against a highly effective organization whose leadership dares to speak explicitly about race, politics and power. As Fenika Miller, State Coordinator in Georgia explains, BVM was founded in 2016 to build out the infrastructure of local organizations that are lifelines in their communities but are often underinvested and underestimated. It invites marginalized communities to radically reimagine what access and equity looks like. Now in 10 states, with forty staff members, BVM exemplifies what can happen when organizations are founded in core beliefs and led by those who honor their community every day. Listen to Fenika to know what unstoppable leadership looks like.