MacArthur "Genius" Award Help Shine Light on Voting Rights Advocacy
Last week, voting rights advocate Desmond Meade, who has worked alongside many Veatch grantees to protect and expand voting rights in the United States, was given a prestigious MacArthur "Genius" award.
Last week, Desmond Meade, Executive Director of the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition — and the previous state director for Veatch grantee Faith in Florida’s Live Free Campaign — was awarded a prestigious MacArthur Fellowship (a.k.a. the “genius grants”) for his work to protect and expand voting rights. Congregation members may remember Desmond from his Ware Lecture with Stacey Abrams at the U.U. General Assembly this past June, where he spoke powerfully to the connection between the right to human dignity and the right to vote. The MacArthur honor includes a $625,000 grant, which Mr. Meade plans to invest back into his voting rights work.
Local and national Veatch grantees who are active in Florida have also worked tirelessly, both in collaboration with Mr. Meade and in their own communities, to protect voting rights in the state. In 2018, these groups — including New Florida Majority (which recently merged with another group to create Florida Rising), Faith in Action, and Florida Immigrant Coalition (FLIC) — worked with the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition to pass Amendment 4, which restored voting rights to roughly 1.4 million people with felony convictions in the state. These groups continue to fight back against efforts to chip away at the law.
All across the country, Veatch grantees are engaged in similar campaigns to protect and expand voting rights — and are doing so in the face of extraordinary efforts to disenfranchise voters from low-income communities and communities of color. In 2016, New Virginia Majority led a similar effort to enfranchise thousands of formerly incarcerated individuals in the state. Black Voters Matter is also fighting voter suppression efforts in states, including Florida, Georgia and Texas, that are seeking to restrict mail-in voting and voter registration — which if implemented would disproportionately impact Black voters. Groups like Southerners on New Ground (SONG), meanwhile, have focused voter education campaigns in areas in the south, including Atlanta, Georgia; Durham, North Carolina; and Nashville, Tennessee. SONG has also targeted its voter education work in areas where sheriffs have collaborated with ICE to detain and deport immigrants.
Desmond Meade’s recognition as a MacArthur “genius” helps shine a much needed light on his critically important voting rights work — and by extension the work of our Veatch grantees. We congratulate Desmond on his award and know that he will use this recognition, and the platform it provides, to continue fighting to protect and expand voting rights. Thanks to the work of our Veatch grantees, Desmond has allies across the country who stand at the ready to further this work alongside him.
As Desmond told the Chronicle of Philanthropy, he hopes this honor demonstrates the ability of “everyday regular people” to make an impact in their communities. “This [genius grant] means that each and everyone in this country has the capacity to do something great."
