Group of NYU law students visit Atlanta to educate Black voters before deadline

ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) - At a Sunday morning service at The Enon Church in southwest Atlanta, a group of NYU School of Law students could be seen dropping in for a visit.

“We took the train from NYU up to LaGuardia and flew down. We’ve been going around Atlanta,” said Ashley Williams, NYU Law School student.

They are members of the Young Black Lawyers’ Organizing Coalition. Atlanta is just one of their stops on a tour to educate Black voters ahead of a pivotal mid-term election. This comes just days before the voter registration deadline.

“We are just coming out to help educate the Black communities about what they need to do to vote safely and make sure their ballot is correctly done and everything,” said Kelsey Brown, NYU School of Law student.

The founder of the group says they are targeting key battleground states.

“States that frankly had become epicenters of voter suppression over the last couple of years. Georgia is one of those states,” said Abdul Dosunmu, founder and chief strategist at YBLOC.

Dosunmu believes some lawmakers have created more hurdles for some voters, and calls it voter suppression, while some believe the measures are good for election security.

“We had one of the safest elections in 2020, and sadly since then many have used false allegations as a pretext to add new layers of burden,” he said.

YBLOC said they were inspired by the Freedom Riders of the civil rights movement, and they believe voters now face a similar threat.

“People in power realize that our votes are counting and they matter,” said Williams.

The group will continue their tour, and along the way mobilize about 300 black lawyers to help spread the word.

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