Last night I drove home to Richmond, Va. from school in Hampton, Va. The trip was about 120 miles. The rain was pouring like crazy, but I didn’t care.
Last night was the night of the much-anticipated mid-term election where the candidates eagerly vied for Congressional and Senatorial seats.
I had to cast my ballot.
I battled sleepiness, slick roads and previously scheduled appointments to make sure that my voice was heard. My friends called me crazy; I considered myself dedicated.
In my family, voting is celebrated occasion. When I turned 18 the year of the 2000 presidential election, my entire family, which includes my mom, two grandparents, sister, brother, and even the dog, walked me to the polling station at the church across the street from our house.
I felt so much pride and excitement that day. At last I was able to engage in the grown- up activity of voting.
Making your voice heard is something I learned early. In a house with six people and a dog, staying quiet won’t get you anywhere. This is a notion my grandmother brought from her hometown of Mound Bayou, Miss. During election time, she always seems to go into overdrive, telling my siblings and me how important it is to vote.
“It’s an important way to get involved in the political process,” said my grandmother. “If you don’t vote, you have no right to complain about what the politicians do.”
This is an especially sensitive issue for her because she grew up in rural Mississippi during the 1940s. Neither she nor her family was able to vote.
“I couldn’t vote at home until after I graduated from college,” grandmother explained. “There was a general sense of fear for blacks because of what whites would do them. If not threatened with violence, blacks had to fill out literacy tests and pay poll taxes. It was all a mess.”
My grandfather, however, had a different voting story to tell.
He grew up in integrated Kansas. During the Civil Rights Movement, he got involved with voter registration campaigns to encourage blacks to vote.
He said, “During that time, I was working with the federal government, the NAACP and the Urban League to get black folks to vote. I had to change their misconception that their vote doesn’t matter and let them know that they had just as much right as anyone else to cast their vote.”
My family background, coupled with the events of previous elections where blacks across the country were disenfranchised, inspire me to do all that I can to make sure that my voice is heard politically.
Given the sensational results of the Virginia race and how it tipped the scales of power in the U.S. Senate, my sense of civic duty and empowerment was validated.
It was worth the rain, the 120 miles, and the missed appointments. I made a difference.