There’s a growing movement among Black women in Mississippi focused on mobilizing their voting power ahead of the November election.
“Power of the Sister Vote Boot Camp” has been sweeping Mississippi to combat the state’s deep history of voter suppression. Organized by the Mississippi Black Women’s Roundtable, a civic engagement and policy advocacy organization, the boot camps serve as a new kind of intentional voter engagement training aimed at increasing voter turnout among Black women in counties throughout Mississippi.
“Black women mobilize their communities,” Cassandra Welchlin, the executive director of the Mississippi Black Women’s Roundtable, told The 19th News. “They are the catalyst.”
The group has been traveling the state of Mississippi for months, hosting their voter boot camps to mobilize Black women for this year’s election and beyond. Welchlin views Black women as the backbone of democracy and recognizes their crucial role in a state and region with a history of suppressing Black voters.
“I was r
aised in a house of Black women — my aunties, my grandma, and then the neighborhood of elders,” she said. “I know the power of Black women taking care of Black women, and taking care of the community.”
Dressed in military fatigues for the boot camp-themed events, Michelin says the war zone mentality is intentional considering the “battle” that comes with voting as a Black person in Mississippi.
“Voting feels like a battle in Mississippi,” she explained. “Mississippi is part of the fabric of the struggles in the South. We have a history, and a muscle, and a foundation in which we have built.”
Welchlin came up with the idea of targeted “boot camp” training because she recognizes that Black women predominantly manage their households and also take on the significant task of encouraging their communities to vote. The trainings are part of The Mississippi Black Women’s Roundtable’s “Sistervote” initiative.
Mississippi faces several voting setbacks, including being one of only three states that do not offer early voting to all residents and one of eight states without online voter registration. The 12-hour window residents have for casting a ballot on Election Day can be challenging for people with irregular work schedules, childcare responsibilities, and transportation difficulties.
Other barriers include gerrymandering and restrictive disenfranchisement bans, like seizing voting rights from people convicted of certain felonies, including nonviolent crimes. Welchlin’s group estimates that over 123,000 Black women in the state did not vote in the last three election cycles. Their goal is to boost voter participation among these women by 10% this November.
Through the boot camps, The Mississippi Black Women’s Roundtable, an affiliate of the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation, is being credited with taking Black women’s political power “to another level.”
“Having a Cassandra Welchlin in leadership, who’s doing unique things — there could be more Black elected officials in the state of Mississippi because the demographics are there. But when you talk statewide, it’s not reached its full potential,” said Melanie Campbell, president and CEO of the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation and convener of the national Black Women’s Roundtable programming.
“Good things do come from the South, and we know that Black women have been a part of making that happen,” Welchlin said.
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