Clark County Commissioner Lawrence Weekly doesn’t want candidates to take Black voters for granted. He also doesn’t take it lightly that he has the right to cast his own ballot.
“It’s clearly the right thing to do. If not for a specific candidate, do it for those who made it possible that you can have this right,” Weekly said. “I don’t take it for granted, at all.”
As a fiercely contested presidential election looms, a pandemic snarls its usual rhythms and the nation faces a racial reckoning, leaders in Southern Nevada’s Black community remind their peers that Black Americans only got an unfettered right to vote in 1965, and to continue to enjoy the hard-won fruits of their forebears’ labor.
“The right to vote is just 55 years old. That happens to be my age,” said Craig Knight, general manager of KCEP 88.1-FM in Las Vegas and a local civic organizer.
People from his parents’ generation stood at the vanguard of what became the landmark Voting Rights Act. “We are the ones they had in mind, who they aspired to do this,” he said.
Clark County Black Caucus, which was created 12 years ago by a group of volunteers on President Barack Obama’s local campaign, focuses on policy advocacy to improve the lives of underserved Black residents. Yvette Williams, the group’s chairwoman, lights up when talking about the continual need for local educational reforms and representation in the county judiciary. All politics, she noted, are local.
“For us, getting out the vote is not just about presidential years," Williams said. "We’re consistently and constantly looking at how we can engage our community to speak up and speak to their representatives, whether that's federal, state or local around these issues that are impacting them. Because for us, we understand, really, politics is local, as they say.”
Weekly, who served on the Las Vegas City Council before joining the county commission, said Black voter participation could always be better. They need to vote, then stay engaged, even virtually — and not let politicians assume they have their support.
Nevada has about 200,000 Blacks of voting age, or about 10% of voting-age residents statewide, according to the U.S. Census.
“If Black Nevadans stay at home and don't vote, a whole lot of people are not going to make it across that finish line as a winner,” Weekly said.
Knight is putting the rubber to the road through the voices on the airwaves to get out the vote.
KCEP is partnering with Weekly’s office to host a ballot drop-off “parade” at the county elections department in North Las Vegas on Oct. 17, giving voters the chance to drop off completed mail-in ballots with election officials and avoid lines on Election Day. Mail-in ballots will be sent to all registered voters Oct. 7.
Later in October, KCEP will join a national campaign with other public, nonprofit radio stations and stations on historically black college campuses to vote early. Sooner than that, the local station will air public service announcements plugging paid poll worker opportunities.
Knight said he also doesn’t advocate for specific parties or candidates. He just wants his community to vote.
It’s KCEP’s platform for this year’s fundraising season. The theme is “we are one — united — vote in power.” They wear these words on their T-shirts and masks while enlivening the morning commute from their studio inside the Historic Westside School. When listeners tune in to an online stream, they see their on-air talent bearing the message.
Voters preserve democracy, Knight said. They honor the late Rep. John Lewis of Georgia, who held voting sacred and fought for the passage of the Voting Rights Act as a young civil rights leader. They honor their elders who didn’t always have the right.
Knight said too many Black people either don’t believe in voting or think their vote doesn’t matter, a mix of cynicism and lack of awareness; undecided or frustrated people might decide to skip their ballots this year, especially if voting in person could get them sick.
“We’re just trying our best to educate, to inspire, to encourage,” he said. “No matter your party affiliation, just exercise your right to vote in honor of our parents and grandparents that were on the front line and fought so we could have this right today.”