Black sororities, fraternities rally for young votes
Jennifer Kouakeu and Phillip Lucas/Contributing writers
Issue date: 10/19/08 Section: Politics
Two young female students walked into a classroom in the Howard University School of Communication on October 6 and 7. They had gone for knowledge, but not the kind they usually get from their professors.
Kim Williams Clark was sitting in front of the classroom, behind a round table loaded with goodies - M&M's and Ritz sandwich crackers - and absentee ballots. Clark is a member of The Links, one of the nation's oldest and largest Black women's service organizations.
As the November 4 general elections nears, The Links and other Black sororities and fraternities, are turning their attention to increasing the number of Black youths going to the polls and casting their votes.
Clark gave the students absentee ballots to cast their vote right there in the classroom and detailed information about absentee voting. But she also gave them something else: an envelope containing money for stamps for their absentee ballots and Metro fare.
Metro fare is a small price to pay for a student's ability to turn new-found voting information into an actual vote, Clark said.
After all, every vote counts, especially in this historic election which might give the United States its first African-American president. Early voting had come to the Howard University campus. And at the end of each day, Clark personally hand delivered the new voter registrations and early ballots to the D.C. Board of Elections.
Besides registering more young voters, Clark, an attorney and dean of institutional development at Long Island University, grounded the new registrants into the nuts and bolts of casting their votes.
"They will go into the booth all alone, so they need to know what to do when they get in there and come out victorious as a new voter," Clark said.
Because of little-known voting policies, some eligible, young adults may not even make it to the booth. Clark wants to make sure that doesn't happen.
"We want them to leave their Obama or McCain T-shirts at home because they will not be allowed to exercise their right," Clark said. "We want them to come with their proper identification to support that they are who they say they are."
Kim Williams Clark was sitting in front of the classroom, behind a round table loaded with goodies - M&M's and Ritz sandwich crackers - and absentee ballots. Clark is a member of The Links, one of the nation's oldest and largest Black women's service organizations.
As the November 4 general elections nears, The Links and other Black sororities and fraternities, are turning their attention to increasing the number of Black youths going to the polls and casting their votes.
Clark gave the students absentee ballots to cast their vote right there in the classroom and detailed information about absentee voting. But she also gave them something else: an envelope containing money for stamps for their absentee ballots and Metro fare.
Metro fare is a small price to pay for a student's ability to turn new-found voting information into an actual vote, Clark said.
After all, every vote counts, especially in this historic election which might give the United States its first African-American president. Early voting had come to the Howard University campus. And at the end of each day, Clark personally hand delivered the new voter registrations and early ballots to the D.C. Board of Elections.
Besides registering more young voters, Clark, an attorney and dean of institutional development at Long Island University, grounded the new registrants into the nuts and bolts of casting their votes.
"They will go into the booth all alone, so they need to know what to do when they get in there and come out victorious as a new voter," Clark said.
Because of little-known voting policies, some eligible, young adults may not even make it to the booth. Clark wants to make sure that doesn't happen.
"We want them to leave their Obama or McCain T-shirts at home because they will not be allowed to exercise their right," Clark said. "We want them to come with their proper identification to support that they are who they say they are."
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