HAMPTON, Va. — The Hampton chapter of the NAACP is launching a summer-long push to register voters ahead of this fall's elections.
Gaylene Kanoyton, president of the Hampton NAACP branch, said the effort will focus on education, registration and mobilization.
"We want to do education, voter registration, and mobilization and that's what we want to do all summer leading up to November," Kanoyton said.
On Monday night, the branch hosted a town hall about voting rights, particularly in light of the U.S. Supreme Court weakening the Voting Rights Act and the Virginia Supreme Court striking down Virginia's new congressional district map.
State Sen. Mamie Locke was among the panelists.
"The voting rights act is gone with the gutting of section two and section five," Locke said.
Norfolk State University Professor Dr. Cassandra Newby-Alexander also spoke at the event.
"The reason we're in the situation we are today is because people didn't vote because they believed the lie that their vote doesn't matter," Newby-Alexander said.
The town hall's message drew parallels to the Freedom Summer of 1964, when civil rights activists worked to register as many African American voters as possible in Mississippi. Kanoyton said the Hampton NAACP will undertake a similar effort in Virginia.
"We are going to go into areas that are low propensity of voter registration and register voters," Kanoyton said.
Not everyone opposes the weakening of the Voting Rights Act. When the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in April, the Republican National Committee chairman Joe Gruters said, "This decision is a win for fairness, the rule of law, and anyone who opposes racial gerrymandering."
For those at the town hall, however, the focus remains on reaching new voters — especially young people.
"Sometimes the challenge is trying to get young people to understand that civic engagement is important that voting is a way for you to take action," said Jeremiah Woods, a Hampton University student.
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