We Have a Place: Black Women Organizing in Kentucky
Illustrations by Nobie Martin
In January of this year, Phillip Bailey, a Louisville native and National Political Correspondent with USA Today, tweeted an article by Errin Haines published in the 19th News with the following caption: “Notice #Kentucky (where @RandPaul is up for reelection soon) is not on the list of where Black women organizers are putting their energy in 2022. #KYSen”.
I was taken aback. I’m a Black women organizer, and I know others who are definitely focused on building electoral power in Kentucky.
The article featured Adrianne Shropshire, Executive Director of Black PAC — a Black-led organization focused on political education and engagement — and the PAC’s plans to continue expanding the Democratic Party’s base and elect more Black women by focusing on Georgia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. “We cannot let another two years go by before we start talking to those folks again. … It is as important to course correcting this nation as 2020 was,” Shropshire told 19th News.
Haines reported that this year, the PAC and others plan to galvanize support in urban areas and expand the electorate in rural areas with significant Black populations.
This is part of our strategy in Kentucky — Black women’s strategy.
Black women organizers in Kentucky were already connected with Shropshire and her team. Alicia Hurle, then Deputy Director of Democracy with Kentuckians for the Commonwealth, and I, as KFTC’s board chair, had met with Black PAC organizers in the fall of 2019 and begun developing a political education program. Subsequently, we had one in-person session with Black PAC and Black member organizers of KFTC from across the state in February. Then COVID hit and we took our program online. Since then, we have met monthly and created a network of Black organizers across Kentucky focused on using political education and electoral politics to build Black political power. At the center of this work is a collection of smart, savvy, badass, Black Kentucky women committed to changing the balance of power in our state, with a focus on organizing Black voters and our allies toward a progressive agenda.
Recently, I spoke with six Black women organizers — all but one of whom are Kentuckians — who worked the 2020 election cycle in Kentucky. They discussed their experience as organizers, their thoughts on electoral strategy and their hopes for the political future of the Bluegrass State. The following are excerpts from our interviews, edited for length and clarity.
ALICIA HURLE, DEPUTY DIRECTOR FOR DEMOCRACY - KENTUCKIANS FOR THE COMMONWEALTH; CO-DIRECTOR OF COMMONWEALTH ALLIANCE VOTER ENGAGEMENT & KENTUCKY CIVIC ENGAGEMENT TABLE
I started my career in social services. I think like most people who enter into that work, you just see the shortcomings of it, and how a lot of times it's having a Band-Aid approach to systemic issues. I found my way into organizing in grad school where I was really just seeing how you are actually in community with people trying to really break the cycle of poverty, and all the other -isms that folks are dealing with in their everyday lives. It was the first time I've really seen folks come into the community to do organizing work. It was a very new concept to me. I think I really found organizing as a mechanism to make the change in people's lives that they seek, and not kind of these social services, and other policy type approaches that are just not deep enough, and really getting at the root causes of the oppression that people face.
As a Black woman in this work, there's a lot that I aspire to do. But I truly know that white folks are going to have to stand up in powerful ways to get into their communities, and have conversations about race, and about class, and about self-interest. And that is the work of white people. I recently was reading something about how we have to put the work of white accountability back in the hands of white people. I truly believe that and so that's really what I've been trying to inspire with the groups that I work, ‘Y'all gotta talk to your people.’
Progressives in Kentucky are so beat down and think our votes don’t matter. I think we are actually sleeping giants in this state and have the ability to really turn out way more voters. Even in 2020, when voter turnout nationally was much higher, we still had 2016 voter-turnout levels. We have so much more we can do to turn out people across our state. We need to engage with folks who are totally disengaged from the political process. It’s one thing to say this is Trump country. But when you really look deeper and see that 55 percent of people aren’t voting, that feels like opportunity to me.
We have to think about what is really possible in 2022. Because we had a win by Mitch McConnell, folks are gonna want to say we can only elect moderate candidates, that we can’t have a candidate who is progressive, versus really thinking about what an exciting primary we can have to get the candidate we need to take on Rand Paul in November 2022. Now is not the time to back down from our progressive values and messaging. We need to figure out how to better communicate and listen to people. In Kentucky, we talk about how we need to educate voters and figure out the right messaging. It all sounds very manipulative to me. We just need to be willing to have real conversations and hear what people have to say and listen to it. We need to think about not convincing people, but about really helping people see what their own self-interests are in voting for progressive candidates, and how they can really benefit from that. And be willing to have uncomfortable conversations.
Charles Booker running [again] will help connect voters across the state two ways - from the campaign and other progressives. The issues are so aligned and gives us the opportunity to double our contacts. He'll reach new voters and those who are not engaged, and so will we. National groups are seeing the possibility and reaching out. We’re already seeing Rand Paul go hard on the dog whistles. he can go hard because Charles is not afraid to call him out and go after him. This campaign will push the party left because they won't be able to ignore the people the campaign is reaching. A new majority will stand up!
I don't believe that elections are the complete pathway to freedom and liberation. But it is a tool in a wide array of tools that we have to make that change….you know, when you're already continually having mediocre candidates that doesn't feel motivating, but when you think you can actually help get somebody elected, who is from your community, who's going to work with you, to bring changes to your community, it's much more motivating and inspiring.
BACK TO TOP
DENISE GRAY, DEPUTY POLITICAL DIRECTOR - AMY MCGRATH FOR US SENATE CAMPAIGN
I was doing some town halls here in Lexington and around the Commonwealth about social justice and racial issues to get people engaged in the electoral process. After one of my events, Amy (McGrath) reached out to me and asked if I’d join the campaign. In considering the offer, my thought process was that I would only join anyone’s campaign after the primary. Just because I joined Amy’s campaign doesn’t mean I voted for her in the primary. I was like, ‘What’s the greatest thing that I could do for my students in Fayette County Public Schools and for people in Kentucky?’ And that was helping to retire Mitch McConnell — and that would actually be great for the United States in general.
Being in Kentucky, with all that was going on with Breonna Taylor and across the country, I felt that it wasn’t a real issue for people that didn’t look like us on the campaign. They did not understand the fear of what it’s like to know that you could be in your own home and the police come and kill you. They didn’t understand that fear. They didn’t feel the angst. It must be nice to have that privilege, to live in this world and not fear you could be gunned down. That was a problem for me on this campaign: being unseen and unheard regarding the issues that were plaguing many Kentuckians at the time.
I believed 100 percent in Amy McGrath. I met Amy McGrath when we were both running for office in 2018. From our first meeting, I valued her as a person. I respected her and I still do. I knew that once she got into office — which didn’t happen either time — that she would actually do a job that would look out for the people of Kentucky, her constituents. And if I didn’t believe in her, I wouldn’t have joined her campaign. I’m not that type of person.
I would like to see a diverse array of Kentuckians on a campaign who can give various points of views. I would like to have people who are knowledgeable about the landscape of Kentucky, the landscape of politics. Basically, you want to make sure your foundation is strong.
It begins now. Engagement begins now. Candidates and organizers cannot go out looking for voters when it’s election time; it begins now.
BACK TO TOP
KETURAH HERRON, POLICY STRATEGIST - ACLU OF KENTUCKY
Note: Keturah Herron is Cassia Herron’s sister. —Ed.
One of the biggest things I was seeking to accomplish was to get folks excited, educated and engaged about the process of what it means to have an election. What does it mean to vote? And what does it mean to just be engaged civically?
The governor [Andy Beshear] had just restored voting rights to folks who had past [nonviolent] felony convictions. And so it was important to get those folks engaged in the process, get those folks registered to vote, and to find out who qualified to be able to vote. (Governor Beshear’s executive order restoring voting rights had many exemptions.) The overall goal is full restoration for people who have had felony convictions. Right now, in Kentucky, if you have a past felony conviction, you’re still not eligible to vote. Kentucky is one of three states who still have such strict voting laws. [Kentucky, Iowa and Virginia permanently disenfranchise anyone convicted of a felony. In Kentucky, the only way to restore voting rights to someone convicted of a felony is by executive action, such as a pardon. —Ed.] So, the goal was to educate people, get people excited, and then tell people why it was important that these folks who had done their time should be able to have their voices heard.
As a community, we were ready to not have Mitch McConnell as the senator. He’s been the senator for pretty much a lot of our lifetimes. Then we juxtapose him to Charles Booker, someone who, when you look at him, you can see yourself. Booker is someone who’s in the community. We saw him get out in communities across the state. We were able to see his leadership in the state legislature for the last few years, and it was just exciting to see someone young, progressive, who understood and had experienced the same things that regular, everyday people had experienced. People could get behind him. People believed in him.
One of the main things I wish we could have done differently was to have identified formerly incarcerated people sooner who either still did not have their voting rights, or those whose voting rights had been restored, to have been able to hire them to do [campaign] work.
My theory of change is, the people who are directly impacted by issues need to be at the table either helping create that change, or they need to be the change-makers. Whether you’re talking specifically about Black people or other marginalized groups, such as the LGBTQ community or poor whites, we have to keep in mind the people who are most disenfranchised and have them at the table if we really want to get the change that we want to see.
I think the biggest thing that we need to think about is that traditional politics is not working for anyone. It’s time for people to stand up and speak out and either identify people in their communities to run (for elected office), or people self-identify, and they become the people who run for office. Some of our elected officials who have been in office for 20-plus years need to self-reflect and say, ‘Is it my time to sit down and allow some of these younger people to lead?’ We have to know and understand that the laws we’re creating are for the generations coming after us. We have to know and understand that we need that youth voice at the table.
My goal is to get out in communities not just locally, but across the state, educating and registering people to vote. I’m in the Emerge Kentucky program, a group of women who have goals to run for public office. I plan to support my Emerge sisters by getting out in their communities and meeting people. As it gets closer to 2022, I wouldn’t be surprised if I have my name on the ballot or be working a campaign.
BACK TO TOP
LASHea BURT, POLITICAL DIRECTOR - BOOKER FOR KENTUCKY; DEPUTY POLITICAL DIRECTOR - MCGRATH FOR US SENATE; LEAD DIRECTOR - THE OUTREACH TEAM/BLACK PROGRESSIVE ACTION COALITION
I entered the 2020 campaign season directly from the Governor’s race in 2019. No break, no time to recoup. In hindsight, that was probably a bad idea. I joined Booker’s initial six-person team to take on the biggest politician in the country, [Mitch McConnell], and later stepped away. I was sick and burned out. After the primary I had a much needed break and got a call from the field director on the McGrath team. They wanted me to do in [predominately Black West Louisville] what I had done on Beshear’s campaign. After much counsel, I joined the campaign. Then, after what we saw in Georgia on election night, [when Democrats won two senatorial campaigns and the presidency], there was no way I could not be a part of the next leg of the race. I packed my car, dropped my sons with my sister, and my partner and I headed to Georgia to help turn out the vote with The Outreach Team and BPAC. If I couldn’t get McConnell out of office, I was going to work to strip a little of his power. And that’s what we did.
In Georgia, I was in charge of the largest field campaign I’d ever run, with a team of 150 staff and canvassers to turn out the vote. I was definitely sending people an hour, sometimes an hour and a half away. But I didn’t have the stress I had back at home. In Louisville, because I am part of the community, I am in circles where I do hear what our community needs to see from campaigns and candidates. I hear so much that I feel like I have to deliver. In Georgia, the pressure was different. It was more about making sure the canvassers were taken care of, like advocating that they be compensated more for the wear and tear on their personal vehicles.
I believe candidates need to start doing and engaging more people than the typical Democratic rounds. Kentuckians all over matter, and we as electoral organizers must always push to reach the ones that are typically to be forgotten about while we make our usual rounds just to make a buck and not a vote.
Working on the McGrath campaign taught me that we as political and electoral organizers must begin to go out and touch the forgotten votes of Kentucky. We can’t keep riding on the ‘I’m the better alternative.’ We have to work and work hard, and also be willing to listen and deliver what the people want and not what we think they need. They know what they want for their communities, and we should be ready to listen and map out a plan to deliver it.
Keep pushing and keep being loud. Don’t let anyone silence your voice. And hold these candidates and elected officials to their words. This government is nothing without the people, and it’s time they start acting like it!
BACK TO TOP
LUTISHA BUCKNER, DENVER HUB ORGANIZER - ELIZABETH WARREN PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN; DEPUTY DIGITAL DIRECTOR - AMY MCGRATH FOR US SENATE CAMPAIGN
While with the McGrath campaign, I spent my time organizing digitally, helping maintain our texting campaign — where we texted over 1 million people in Kentucky — and helping to manage our digital organizers. With the Warren campaign, we mobilized over 300 volunteers from across several states to make calls and host events. Texting a million people, that sounds great — but for Kentucky? I had people tell me, ‘Y’all texted me 30 times! You would have my vote if you didn’t text me all those times.’ Does texting really work for people? Or are we going to a space where we have to be innovative? We’re in a new world with the pandemic, everything that’s happened. So what does that look like in future campaigns? Are we really targeting people, or are we just going for the numbers?
I would have liked to see more regular people like me on both campaigns. When I was working in Colorado, I was the only Black woman in the Denver office. I thought it was weird. Y’all couldn’t find any other Black women to work on this, too? I just find that shocking. Like, nobody?
Working on the campaign and being a Black staffer can be tokenizing at times. I acknowledge that I have privilege as a cisgender Black woman with a network that has helped me get access to jobs or groups or whatever. People assume, then: ‘OK, well, she’s good.’ They don’t know about my work or anything really — just that I know someone.
A community of Black women is important because we are the base of the Democratic Party. Definitely having more Black women would have brought others to the office voluntarily — more Black women willing to volunteer, willing to vote and vote for that candidate.
I think everything has to be rooted with understanding, and empathy, and knowing where folks are coming from. When you don’t have that knowledge, how does that translate into running a successful campaign when you can’t even relate or understand where folks are coming from?
Folks should really consider that we’re in a moment where Kentucky could change drastically for the better. We can elect the first Black senator from our state. We can bring broadband to places that have never had broadband before — and clean water with all this funding that we’re getting. I think it’s just time for a lot of good things to happen. And if people are willing to do the work, and enact good policy, and finally get rid of people who don’t care in their best interest, I think we could do a lot.
BACK TO TOP
SHANTE WOLFE, DEPUTY CAMPAIGN MANAGER, CHARLES BOOKER FOR US SENATE (2020)
When I entered the 2020 campaign season, I felt like my livelihood was on the line, and more importantly, that the lives of those I loved were threatened. I knew we were at the height of several historic moments — especially in the South, with the uprisings happening around Breonna Taylor, and also the fact that we are in a pandemic that nobody has ever experienced before. I felt like this was the final stage to determine what the next decade or so would look like for people like me — for Black people, young Black people, queer Black people. So that is really what grounded me in my ‘why’ for the 2020 election cycle. Those were the people that I cared about talking to. The white working class as well. And if I wasn’t reaching them, I didn’t feel like I was being productive.
(In Charles Booker), I saw a candidate who felt like, to a certain degree, he didn’t have anything to lose, because he had already sacrificed so much by just getting in the race. And that was something that I could resonate with, being from the South. (Birmingham, Alabama is home.) I also saw a candidate who was surprisingly different from what the South propels as an electable leader. This is a Black guy who does not code-switch when he says what he’s about. He showed me that you don’t have to change to be a leader of people.
It comes down to prioritization, talking to the right people versus the people that [some] feel like should be first. Who are we talking to? And being intentional on reaching the most vulnerable early, as opposed to reaching the most vulnerable to carry you through the finish line. That’s what happens no matter what candidate it is, and I think it’s more so a symptom of the Democratic Party and how they engage Black voters — particularly Black voters that they call low-propensity voters. I don’t really like that term, because if Black people were presented an option that actually fought for them, I think that we wouldn’t have a problem getting them to the polls.
If you’re not telling stories, you’re not getting to the heart of the issue. I feel like any monumental piece of legislation or executive action came from a story. I think we will get there through storytelling, through organizing and absorption. Those aren’t the only things, but I think those should be the strongest components of what you are doing. Because until you put a face with an issue, most of the time people won’t feel like they’re directly impacted. And not only just a face, but a face that resonates with their experience, as opposed to just looking like them.
I will be back in Kentucky. I can’t say that there is one particular way I will show up in Kentucky, but I will be back during the 2022 season. I’ll be everywhere in the South. I love to say I’m based in Birmingham, but I truly live wherever the South needs me to be.
BACK TO TOP
CASSIA HERON
Cassia identifies as an abolitionist, community organizer and creative as a writer. A proud Kentuckian, she has spent the past two decades working to transition the state's agricultural and energy economies from extractive industries to local and community-owned, cooperative economies that advance equity and justice. Currently, Cassia is leading efforts to open the Louisville Community Grocery and working on her first book project. Her writing background includes poetry and op-eds in the Courier-Journal and Lexington Herald Leader; most recently, she’s written for and served as contributing editor for Louisville Magazine. Cassia is a graduate of the University of Louisville and holds a Masters of Urban Planning from the University of Michigan.
NOBIE MARTIN
Nobie Martin, she/they, 25, is a visual artist from Louisville, Kentucky who has an appreciation for all forms of art. They are currently a senior at Bellarmine University, where they are majoring in painting with a minor in art history.