HBCU students march to the polls and rally for answers as Election Day arrives, from Mississippi to North Carolina and Maryland. Capital B reports that students at Jackson State, North Carolina A&T, Norfolk State, and other campuses have spent weeks organizing marches. Morgan State students in Baltimore planned to join them later on Election Day. Their causes differ, but the message is the same: young Black voters want to be heard.
Jackson State’s Blackout Rally
On Oct. 7, Jackson State students held a Blackout Rally in remembrance of young Black lives lost in Mississippi, WLBT reported. They named Nolan Wells, Tasia Fortune, and Kohen Wiley, and they marched to the COFO Civil Rights Education Center. Signs read “Justice for Black Students” and “Protect Black Youth.” Capital B described the march as heading to the state capitol, while WLBT’s report names the COFO center.
Organizer Jakari Holland said he cared about “youth using their voice.” Fellow organizer Camrynn Wimberly, 22, of Hattiesburg, told Capital B that elections are how change happens. Her sign read “Mississippi needs your courage,” and also “Mississippi needs our rage.” She wants a thorough investigation into Wells’s death, including the state medical examiner’s office.
The Wells case remains disputed. Wells, 18, was found dead July 6 after a July 4 boating trip to Horn Island. A grand jury declined to charge anyone and found the circumstances consistent with drowning. Both the state and an independent autopsy listed the cause and manner of death as undetermined. A Justice Department spokesperson told Capital B that the FBI assisted and saw no evidence of foul play. Wells’s family and attorney Ben Crump are still pressing for an independent federal investigation.
Other Campuses Join In
Students elsewhere picked up the cause. Thousands from the Atlanta University Center marched Oct. 1, according to The Guardian as relayed by Texas Metro News. Students at Norfolk State marched too, per a post Crump shared Oct. 27. At Florida A&M, student groups organized a walk-out, The FAMUAN reported. At the Capitol in Tallahassee, FAMU student Jayla Jones, a fourth-year political science major, tied the moment to the 2013 sit-in that followed the Trayvon Martin verdict, Capital B reported. Holland said a protest “should not be the end of a conversation about injustice.”
HBCU Buzz covered a different kind of march when Atlanta students walked to an early-voting site, in its report on the AUC March to the Polls.
Where HBCU Students March to the Polls in Greensboro
The most direct voting fight is in North Carolina. On Oct. 15, the first day of early voting, students from North Carolina A&T State University and UNC Greensboro walked about 45 minutes to the closest early-voting site at Union Square, per WFDD. WFDD counted more than 100 marchers. Capital B described thousands, so the crowd size depends on the source.
The Guilford County Board of Elections approved a 17-site early-voting plan without campus locations, NC Newsline reported. The vote wasn’t unanimous, so the decision went to the State Board of Elections. No campus sites made the final map. Students from Protect Ours, a student-led group not affiliated with the university, objected. Co-founder Shia Rozier has worked to restore campus voting since her first year. The group has raised money and partnered with community organizations to arrange rides to the nearest polling place, which is more than a mile from campus, according to The A&T Register.
Officials gave their own account. Guilford elections director Charlie Collicutt told Capital B that A&T hasn’t had an early site for a midterm since early voting began in 2000, though it did have a campus polling place on the March primary’s Election Day. County board members told the state board their plan matched midterm plans from 2010 through 2022, and NC Newsline noted that 17 sites would be the most ever for a midterm year in the county. State Board Chairman Francis De Luca has said he dislikes campus sites because of parking. College Democrats of North Carolina and students from three universities also sued the state board over the primary sites, NC Newsline reported.
Gen Z’s Civic Push
Capital B also spoke with Tevon Blair, a Dillard University graduate who co-founded a nonprofit supporting HBCU student leaders. Its Vote HBCU program registered more than 800 students at 10 HBCUs in under a month, he said. Blair pushed back on the idea that Gen Z is disengaged. In 2020, he recalled, people kept telling students who to vote for instead of asking what issues they cared about.
What to Watch
Turnout is the next test. Final numbers will show whether these marches translated into votes at campus-area polling places. In Mississippi, the Wells case will keep drawing attention beyond Election Day. In North Carolina, the fight over campus polling sites isn’t over.
For Jackson State University and Morgan State University students alike, the stakes feel local and personal. HBCU students march to the polls today carrying a long tradition of campus activism into Election Day.
