Episode 201: Who Is Left To Be Inspired
Every time we are near an election, it feels like the outreach to Black voters is particularly lackluster, then after the election, we play the voter blame game. To discuss organizing on the ground 365 days a year and share strategies on inspiration, L. Joy brings a plaintiff in the redistricting case before the Supreme Court Merrill v. Milligan, Evan Milligan to the front of the class.
Homework:
**Get our family, friends, organizations, associates, ect. vote ready asap (verify voter registration, find out poll site, find out what is on the ballot). Share your vote plan with L. Joy
Find out about the case on Redistricting before the Supreme Court Merrill v. Milligan https://www.naacpldf.org/merrill-v-milligan-supreme-court/
Civic Engagement Tables are usually not for profit, non-partisan groups that may provide technical tools, training, and collaboration to do civic engagement around states/municipalities. Is there a civic engagement table in your area? Email L. Joy and let her know joy@sundaycivics.org
Check out Alabama state civic engagement table Alabama Forward https://alforward.org/
Check out State Voices https://www.statevoices.org/get-involved/
Our Guest:
Evan Milligan is the executive director of Alabama Forward, a statewide civic engagement table advancing efforts of nonpartisan organizations throughout Alabama to expand the voter base, protect voting rights, and make election systems as accessible as possible.
Milligan previously worked as a paralegal, law fellow, and program manager with the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI), a criminal defense/human rights law firm that also produces public narrative content regarding American's history of anti-Black violence and structural racism. Via that work with EJI, he participated in restorative justice oriented re-entry services, services for incarcerated clients, and also memorialization services recognizing the lives of Black victims of racial terror lynching. He was able to directly participate in the erection of 8-9 historical markers that acknowledge the lives of racial terror lynching victims in Texas, Tennessee, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, and Maryland.
He was as a policy advisor for Precinct One of the Harris County Commission (Houston, Texas), leading a research and proposal drafting effort that effectively argued for the establishment of community based violence interruption and hospital based violence prevention programs in Harris County/Houston.
