STATEMENT FROM THE CENTER FOR RACIAL AND SOCIAL JUSTICE
SHAW UNIVERSITY
We now face a moment of decision. Today, all across the nation, people will gather in polling booths to cast their ballots. The past four years have been a nightmare of the inhumanity of humanity—children being separated from parents at the border seeking refuge, the poor being neglected while the rich prosper; constant ravaging of God’s land and the environment and our access to necessary healthcare in peril. So, now is the time to vote and act with faith and hope.
Downtown, in the City of Raleigh, there are boarded up businesses, job layoffs, and deep concern about the outcome of the election. With so much uncertainty, the stakes are high in local communities, as with the City of Raleigh, still reeling from weeks of protest since the death of George Floyd. Even as we call for calm, tempered responses to the election results, we affirm the promises of democracy, especially in this moment of decision.
Campuses and cities are on edge as we await election results. This evening, at the end of the “election season” when the polls close, election officials will then count the votes we cast in good faith. We know that in a democracy such as ours, every vote counts and must be counted. So, let the process work as it should and with patience await the outcome of this critical election season.
The sacred right to vote has not come without a fight. Throughout the history of America, the struggle for democracy has been reflected in the voting process. On April 15, 1960, students from across the nation gathered on the campus of Shaw University to form the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke to the gathering of young courageous students urging them to claim their voice and stand up for human dignity. The students organized across America to not only end the unjust system of segregation, but help pass the Voting Rights Act of 1964, which affirmed equal access to voting, regardless of race, creed, or religion.
This election is a test of American democracy, and a quest to reclaim what Dr. King called the “soul of America.” In the spirit of Ella Baker, we call on communities near and far to vote and ensure that every vote is counted! As Ella Bake observed, “we who believe in freedom shall not rest until its done.”
Our call and prayer is to let justice run down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.
There is an awakening sweeping across the nation and the world—an awakening of our shared humanity, that our fate is intertwined and we either live together as brothers and sisters are perish as fools. The pandemic has taught us that we can no longer accept the doctrine of rugged western individualism but must embrace our interrelatedness and interconnectedness. We are the “Beloved Community” - persons in community in this world together.
So we call upon all college students, faculty, business professionals, essential workers, citizens, pastors, congregations, and all people of good will to vote your conscience; to vote for peace, sound leadership, and integrity; to vote for the path to justice, hope, and freedom for all of God’s children. Now is our time to make real the change that we seek. Let’s stand strong and stand together at this moment of decision.
