Two Hundred and Fifty Years and Still Fighting for the Ballot

This year, the United States of America marks its 250th anniversary. It is a milestone that invites reflection on how far this nation has come and an honest reckoning with how far it still has to go.

For Black Americans, that reckoning is impossible to avoid. The Declaration of Independence proclaimed that all men are created equal, but for generations, Black people were excluded from that promise by law, by violence, and by deliberate political design. The Voting Rights Act of 1965, won through sacrifice and the moral courage of leaders like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and John Lewis, was supposed to change that forever.

But in 2026, Black voting rights are once again under siege. And Black Atlanteans need to hear the alarm.

The Scope of the Threat

The numbers are staggering. Since 2021, 187 laws restricting access to voting have been passed across 23 states. These laws have made it harder to register, harder to vote early, harder to use absentee ballots, and harder to access polling locations, particularly in communities of color.

At the federal level, new barriers to voting are once again being proposed in Congress, while longstanding protections continue to erode. For Black voters, the democratic promise of equality at the ballot box has never felt more fragile.

The African American Mayors Association, the only organization exclusively representing Black mayors in the United States, is leading the charge. As they stated: as we look toward the next 250 years, one of the most patriotic things any of us can do is simple: learn our rights, show up for one another, and vote like our future depends on it. Because it does.

Georgia Is Ground Zero

For those of us in Atlanta and across Georgia, voting rights are not an abstract national debate. They are a lived reality. Georgia has been at the center of some of the most consequential voting rights battles in recent American history. Our state has seen aggressive efforts to restrict early voting, purge voter rolls, and limit ballot drop boxes.

But Georgia has also shown what Black political power looks like when organized and mobilized. The record-breaking Black voter turnout in recent elections has reshaped the political landscape and sent a message to the entire country: Black votes change outcomes.

Atlanta's Legacy of Freedom

Atlanta is the birthplace of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the home of John Lewis, the ground where generations of civil rights leaders planned, marched, organized, and sacrificed to secure the rights we hold today. The legacy of Sweet Auburn, of Spelman and Morehouse and Clark Atlanta, of the SCLC and the NAACP flows through our city's veins.

We are the children and grandchildren of people who were beaten, jailed, and murdered for the right to vote. We owe it to them to use it.

Voting Is Just the First Move

Voting should be the first chess move, not the last. The work of democracy does not end on Election Day. It continues in city council meetings, school board sessions, community organizing, legal challenges, and the daily act of holding elected officials accountable.

Black mayors across the country are calling on us to go deeper: become election workers, poll monitors, and community organizers who make the democratic process more accessible and trustworthy for everyone.

What You Can Do

• Check your voter registration at Georgia's Secretary of State website. Registrations can be purged, so verify yours is active.
• Register someone else. Help a neighbor, a young family member, or a coworker get registered before the deadline.
• Know your polling place and early voting options. Plan your vote like you plan an important appointment, because it is one.
• Volunteer as a poll worker or election observer. Your presence matters.
• Talk about voting in barbershops and beauty salons, at church and at the dinner table, at cookouts and on social media. Normalize civic participation in every space you occupy.

The Next 250 Years Belong to Us

The next 250 years will be shaped by whether we succeed in fully realizing the promise of equality for ourselves, our children, and generations not yet born. The work is unfinished. The stakes are the highest they have been in a generation. And Black Atlanta, with its legacy, its power, and its people, is exactly the community that can lead the way.

Register. Organize. Vote. Rise.

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