Zooming For Economic Equity and Against Voter Suppression Hosted by “A Call to Colors” and “A Call to Corporate America” – GDN Exclusive
by Kathy Grear 03/15/2021Corporate Attendance is Welcomed!
Saturday March 27, 2021 (1:00 pm-3:00 pm)
Dr. E. Lavonia Allison
A growing number of Black leaders and leadership organizations are supporting GDN’s upcoming Zoom project. The Zoom project is designed to create an open forum for discussing the historic intersection of voting rights and economic equity with the objective of sharing ideas that will enable our communities to address these issues more effectively.
HBCU Alumni and Students are participating in this forum. HBCU Alumni should seek corporate support for endowments, internships, jobs, and other investments. HBCU students should seek corporate support for internships, jobs and financial aid for tuition and civic/voter engagement to help address voter suppression.
Dr. E. Lavonia Allison helped found, A Call to Colors, “to promote 100% voter registration and participation on … HBCU campuses.” Today, NAACP members are finalizing a student model of voter mobilization to be used nationwide on HBCU and Predominately White Institutions campuses.
Voter suppression is the cornerstone of legislation that produces social and economic disparities in Black America. These disparities impact our HBCUs. To redress this Jim Crow era tool and the corporations that support it, in 2018 Greater Diversity News’ (GDN) voter education, registration, and mobilization project created the “A Call to Colors” (ACtC) initiative and later joined forces with the National Historically Black College and University Alumni Association Foundation (NHBCUAAF) to expand its reach to HBCUs nationwide. This union has developed five mobilization models that includes HBCUs, alumni and students, Divine 9, graduate and undergraduate, nonpartisans, and faith-based institutions.
Corporate America represents the centuries-old parent of economic inequities, with all its different iterations visited upon Black Americans. Recently GDN initiated “A Call to Corporate America” (ACtCA). It starts with the belief that Black America should marry its aspiration for economic equity to its ever-growing pursuit of voting rights through civic/voter engagement.
Corporate America’s support of our organizations inevitably results in mutual benefits to themselves and Black communities. While political engagement has been successful in attaining social civil rights goals and objectives, those successes have not translated into a comparable economic equity. There are many reasons for this, not the least of which is the corporate influence on government policies designed to enhance corporate profit without regards to their negative impact on diverse populations which purchases corporate products and services. Black engagement efforts are led mostly by volunteers that requires financing. Corporate America should be major contributors to the civic/voter engagement and economic equity leadership organizations of HBCUs. Our organizations reach millions of their customers who have HBCU affiliations, interests, hopes, and visions. Currently, those billions expended with corporations are rarely returned to Black communities.
All that recognize the need for new ideas for a new generation can support GDN’s efforts. GDN is opening the online dialogue on the unity of Civic Engagement, Diversity and Inclusion and is seeking input from all that recognize the need. ACtCA will be a core focus of GDN going forward. It will publish news articles and action plans, including those from and about corporations, that impact this project. We will use our web and print products to move this project and invite all our readers and supporters to join in and help.
This initiative is endorsed and supported by the North Carolina Central University Alumni Association CEAC, The Pitt County HBCU Alumni Coalition, the National Historically Black College and University Alumni Association Foundation, and Black Baby Boomers Who Remember, Eastern North Carolina Civic Group, and still growing. Click here to register.
This information is provided as a community service of Greater Diversity News (GreaterDiversity.com). Please support our voter registration initiatives by subscribing to GDN eNews and stay up-to-date on weekly events and news. Subscriptions to eNews are FREE!
