The Truth Staff
The organization known as Black Voters Matter made a stop in Toledo on its way to Cleveland on Wednesday October 12 amid a bus tour “to help build Black voting power ahead of midterms.
The bus tour – which organizers are calling “We Won’t Black Down” – arrived in northwest Ohio less than four weeks before the upcoming general election on Tuesday, Nov. 8.
Two buses are touring the country organized the Black Voters Matter organization in their “Blackest Bus In America” movement and are making these stops with plans to mobilize Black voters and engage with policymakers, faith-based leaders, Black influencers and HBCU students.
“Upwards of 50 percent of Black communities have no idea there’s a midterm election coming up. That’s horrifying,” said Barbara Arnwine, the president and founder of Transformative Justice Coalition. “We’re out here pushing the word out that there is a midterm election and that you need to vote and don’t let anybody suppress your vote. We’re in Ohio!”
In Toledo, local leaders and elected officials joined the stop in the parking lot of Warren AME Church to hear the organizers speak about the importance of voting and to join in encouraging voters to get out and vote.
“It is so vital that we reach out to every person,” said Rev. Willie Perryman of Jerusalem Baptist Church and president of the Toledo NAACP. “Let’s get out the black vote because we won’t black down.”
The bus arrived in Ohio after a tour of Wisconsin and Michigan. After hitting northern Ohio cities, the bus headed to Pittsburgh.
