From the civil rights movement of the 1950s and ’60s to the Black Lives Matter protests following George Floyd’s death, Black students have been marching in the streets and demanding justice. Some are more hesitant than others about engaging in political discussions or activism, while others jump in as soon as they get the chance.
Now, with a presidential election on the horizon — one that could see Vice President Kamala Harris become the first woman of color in the Oval Office — educators and experts see a historic, teachable moment unfolding outside the classroom. They are exploring ways to get students engaged with what’s happening around them and how their voices can influence history.
“Black people — especially young Black people — can make a HUGE difference in swaying election outcomes,” says Diane Robinson, educator and founder of Yard Girl Productions, which makes films about education and social change. One need look no further, she says, than to the last presidential and midterm elections: “In 2020 and 2022, Black people and young people were key to the outcomes of those elections.”
This year, “young people are 40% of the (U.S) electorate — they can determine the outcome of the election by either staying home or how they vote,” Robinson says. “Their voices and vote especially definitely matter.”
K-12 Students and Voting
Jonathan Collins, professor of science and education at Teachers College, Columbia University, says K-12 students and political activism go hand in hand. Schools have helped educate young people about politics for generations, and not just in civics classes.
During the civil rights era, for example, Black children were on the front lines of the movement, even if they weren’t old enough to vote. Ruby Bridges was just 6-years-old when she became the first student to integrate an all-white school in the South; in the Children’s Crusade in Birmingham, about 1,000 grade-school students marched every day for a week, demanding equality.
More recently, after Floyd, Breanna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbury and other unarmed Black people were shot and killed under questionable circumstances, Black K-12 students joined Black Lives Matter activists in protest marches from New York to California. And there have been youth-led movements demonstrating against everything from school shootings to climate change.
With data showing 1 in 4 Black people age 23 or younger is registered to vote, several nonprofit voter-registration organizations have popped up in recent years, looking to harness that political power. Organizations like The Civics Center and the Youth Voter Movement help students organize in-school voter registration drives and provide information on voting laws in all 50 states.
More specifically, initiatives like Black Voters Matter and other activist networks work to mobilize young Black voters to gather and utilize their voice.
Threat to Black Voices
Despite the long tradition of student activism and voting, the right of young people to protest is under threat. They point to Project 2025, a far-right blueprint for the next Republican president, that would remake the federal government — including shutting down the Department of Education.
If that happened, full control of the nation’s education policies would revert to the states, and students would lose the Office of Civil Rights, a key department responsible for investigating complaints of discrimination. Without the Education Department, Black students likely would lose the right to equitable resources, culturally relevant learning, and other essential support for Black students. Given that, it’s highly likely Black students would be opposed to Project 2025.
One way Collins recommends students who oppose the plan and want to make it known is to create or ensure they have a safe space to come together and share their thoughts. Second, he says, is to start having important conversations among peers and others about what changes in their schools, around their neighborhoods, and in the districts they’d like to see.
“There will be a response to what they identify as an important problem,” he says. “Especially Black kids. We don’t even see the idea that we have agency in these kinds of processes.”
He cites an example from his own high school experience to illustrate the point.
“I went to an all-black high school,” he says. Back then, “the idea that we could go to a school board and actually push back against some of the rules and policies that were forced upon us — we didn’t think that was possible.”
Yet Robinson, the educator and filmmaker, says students using their voices to oppose something real going on in their lives is the foundation for initiating change, forcing policy makers to pay attention and connect it to their right to vote.
“Based on what I have learned by spending time with young Black people and asking them what inspires them to get involved in our political system, I think it is always best to start with the issues young people care about,” Robinson says.
Fighting Disinterest
Too often, young Black people are disillusioned with politics; studies show they don’t believe one vote makes a difference in their lives. According to a Harvard Youth Poll, fewer Black voters under age 30 plan to vote in the upcoming presidential election than did at this point in the 2020 election cycle.
But an increasing number of Black elected officials — including Harris, the vice president, who could become the first president to graduate from an HBCU and the first who is a member of a Black sorority — could drive up voter participation among Black youths. For the first time since 2016, they will have someone on the presidential ballot who looks like them.
“Representation matters, and this is where the authenticity of the representation matters,” Collin says. “The job of the representative is to kind of be that conduit between communities. So if we get representatives who are comfortable in these community spaces, well, then you have someone who’s there and who comes from where you come from to have a certain kind of political conversation. ”
Robinson, who in 2020 followed the lives of a diverse group of students and activists in the film ‘The Young Vote’, agrees. Besides representation, she says, it’s about equipping young people with the tools and skills they need to take action.
“Specifically, a young African American woman that I followed in The Young Vote was encouraged by her teacher to reach out to a local elected leader about an issue that was really important to her,” Robinson says. “This started her journey as a student activist and got her to make the connections between what she cared about and the political system.”
Still, there are different ways for young Black people to get involved in a movement or a campaign. Some use their social media presence; others stand on streetcorners, handing out flyers or speaking into a bullhorn. Still others prefer taking trips to Capitol Hill to watch committee meetings or contact their member of Congress.
“The young woman that we followed in The Young Vote was initially skeptical about the power of voting but she realized that it was a powerful way to use her voice,” Robinson says. “I also learned from her that voting alone does not make you a “beautiful citizen” but it is staying engaged in your community in an ongoing way.”
