Leaders from the Movement for Black Lives have launched a voter registration drive to coincide with the US premiere of the movie, Black Panther.
Kayla Reed, Jessica Byrd and Rukia Lumumba are working through their organization, Electoral Justice Project, to register African-American voters in person, at theaters showing the much-anticipated Marvel Comics film.
‘We are effective because we meet our communities where they are, whether that’s in the streets, at the city council meeting, or in the movie theater,’ the leaders told Blavity.
‘This weekend we wanted to meet our people in Wakanda. We will be registering people to vote at movie theaters across the country so that we can #wakandathevote at the ballot box.’
Kayla Reed (left), Jessica Byrd (center) and Rukia Lumumba (right) are working through their organization, Electoral Justice Project, to register African-American voters in person, at theaters showing the Black Panther film
Wakanda is the fictional African nation where the Black Panther movie is set, but it for Reed, Byrd and Lumumbua, it stands for much more than that.
‘We know that for some it’s a superhero world, but we know that the world we deserve is still waiting to be built, and we want to build it!’ Byrd and Reed said.
‘This upcoming spring and November 2018 midterm elections are an important step in building that new world, and we want to take every opportunity to engage our communities in the conversation of electoral justice.’
Among those who identify as either black alone or black in combination (meaning multi-racial), 20.9 million people of voting age reported being registered to vote in 2016, according to DailyMail.com analysis of tables provided by the US Census Bureau.
Ticket sales for the film in North America are expected to total roughly $218 million between Friday and Monday, according to a press release from Disney
That’s out of an estimated 30.3 million US citizens, age 18 or older, who are black, alone or in combination.
To compare that to data on people 18 or over who identified as white alone or in combination, 129.7 million people were registered to vote in the 2016 presidential election, out of a total eligible US citizen population of 181.32 million.
Reed, Byrd and Lamumba hope to raise those numbers for the black community, ahead of elections happening later this year.
‘Over 1,000 people joined our [voter registration initiative] launch call, and we’ve been building out an exciting campaign ever since,’ the leaders said.
Wakanda is the fictional African nation where the Black Panther movie is set, but it for Reed, Byrd and Lumumbua, it stands for much more than that
The Electoral Justice Project also hopes to encourage political engagement in the black community, beyond simply registering to vote, because if you don’t show up to the polls, nothing else really matters.
In 2016, black voter turnout dropped for the first time in two decades during a presidential election, according to Pew Research Center.
Only 59.6 percent of registered black voters showed up to vote, down from a record high of 66.6 percent of registered black voters that cast ballots in 2012, in the presidential contest between incumbent Democratic President Barack Obama and Republican former governor Mitt Romney of Massachusetts.
That’s the greatest decrease in percentage by any racial group, since white voter turnout dropped by nearly 10 percentage points, 12 years ago.
Among voting age people who identified as white, 70.2 percent of registered voters turned out in 1992, but that number dropped to 60.7 percent in the 1996 president election, between incumbent Democrat President William Clinton, Republican candidate Bob Dole.
The Black Panther movie is by far the top-grossing film in history by a black director (Ryan Coogler) and featuring a mostly black cast
The leaders are aware that beyond registration, the black community must also get to the voting box, in order to have a say in government.
‘We will be engaged in actions all over the country to educate and motivate black voters as well as launching an intensive campaign manager institute this spring called the Electoral Justice League,’ they told Blavity.
‘We intend to have thousands of conversations with black people as well build a fun and life-affirming political home that isn’t transactional, but transformational.’
For now, though, the first step is reaching their communities to get registration numbers up, which is why they’ve focused on this moment to reach African-Americans.
The Black Panther movie broke multiple records over the weekend.
Ticket sales for the film in North America are expected to total roughly $218 million between Friday and Monday, according to a press release from Disney.
It’s by far the top-grossing film in history by a black director (Ryan Coogler) and featuring a mostly black cast. Prior to this weekend, that record belonged to the film Straight Outta Compton, which took in $214 million worldwide in 2015, over its entire box office run, after numbers have been adjusting for inflation, according to the New York Times.
All of this puts the Black Panther movie in the running to become the second highest ever grossing film, over four days, behind Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which took in $288 million over its debut weekend in 2015.
The movie has already beat out Deadpool for the highest-grossing ever launch of a feature film in the month of February.
Global ticket sales are estimated to hit $387 million by Monday.
Individuals can register to vote by texting ‘Wakanda’ to 91990. Those interested may also register to host their own movie theater drive by texting ‘Panther’ to the same number.
‘We know that for some it’s a superhero world, but we know that the world we deserve is still waiting to be built, and we want to build it!’ the leaders of the Electoral Justice Project said