By Kenneth Mullinax/ASU
Alabama State University's student chapter of the NAACP is serious about making a difference during this election cycle. They are working hard to honor the heritage of past generations of the Hornet Nation family who fought to make voting rights possible for the nation's disenfranchised voters.
The students put action ahead of rhetoric by hosting a series of voter registration drives over the past three months. The latest one was held on September 17 in front of the Fred Shuttlesworth Dining Hall in honor of National Voter Registration Day. The students will continue registering students to vote until the very last day to register in Alabama, explains Tyrin Moorer, who serves as president of ASU’s NAACP chapter.
"As an NAACP member and campus president, I feel that we must work as hard as our forebearers did to make sure that we register as many of our students as possible to vote; and then on election day, ensure that they go to the polls and exercise the right that so many members of our community worked so hard to make a reality throughout the 1950s and 1960s," Moorer said. "The deadline for people to register to vote in these most important Presidential and Congressional elections is October 21 (in Alabama), and we will keep working diligently until the very last minute."
Members of the University's NAACP chapter were inspired to start their voter registration campaign after attending an NAACP “Fired Up” Summit in May. At that time, there were approximately 200 students on campus who could vote.
Moorer, a senior Finance major, shared that at the four-day event, they learned how to plan engagements to register students. After that summit, the ASU's NAACP members developed a concise and well-organized plan for their on-campus registration drive and began its implementation over the summer.
"After having a plan in place, we kicked-off our first registration drive in July and held one again during the 'Hornet-Haul' student move-in day in August, which netted us over 300 students as new voters. Today (Sept. 17), we have registered over 200 students and our goal is to have 1,000 students ready to go to the polls and vote before the Oct. 21 deadline," said Moorer, a native of Pensacola, Fla., who now calls Montgomery home.
"Our goal is to make sure that Alabama State continues to be 'Where History is Made,' and the only motivation that we need to accomplish our goal is to remember the efforts of so many students, staff, faculty and alumni who came before us, including the great Civil Rights Movement champion of Birmingham's effort, Fred Shuttlesworth (Class of 1951). We are conducting our effort now in front of the very building on campus named in his honor."
To learn more about registering to vote as an ASU student: visit myasunaacp@gmail.com or Instagram at myasu_naacp.