Register. Vote. Bring somebody with you. Then stay involved.
For all the legal analysis, political history and warnings about threats to voting rights packed into Saturday morning’s Tennessee State Conference NAACP Community Town Hall, among the most persistent messages was also the simplest.
Do something.
Panelists at Mt. Olive Cathedral CME Church urged people to check their voter registration, learn what’s on the ballot, knock on doors, contact friends and family and — above all — get to the polls.
But they also stressed that civic engagement doesn’t end when the polls close. Show up at city council and county commission meetings. Pay attention to decisions being made in your neighborhood. Hold elected officials accountable. Keep organizing.
Judging from the room, plenty of young people were listening.
Less than 24 hours after young NAACP leaders spent Friday evening wrestling with how to get more of their generation involved, youths again turned out in force Saturday — this time joining veteran civil rights activists in a broader conversation about redistricting, voting rights, political power and what comes next.
A new political map
Much of that conversation started with something that has already changed for Memphis voters: the map.
In May, Tennessee lawmakers approved a new congressional map splitting Memphis and Shelby County among three districts and eliminating the state’s only majority-Black district. Civil rights groups, including the Tennessee State Conference NAACP, challenged the map in state and federal court, alleging that it intentionally diluted Black voting power. A state court challenge was dismissed in May, while federal challenges continued.
Dr. Sekou Franklin, executive director of the John Lewis Center for Social Justice at Fisk University, told the audience that the redistricting fight should be viewed in the context of a changing legal landscape around voting rights.
Franklin pointed specifically to the U.S. Supreme Court’s April decision in Louisiana v. Callais, which struck down Louisiana’s second majority-Black congressional district and altered the legal terrain surrounding Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.
But for Kathryn Winsley, a North Mississippi voter protection organizer for the Mississippi Democratic Party, the practical impact of redistricting could be explained without a law degree.
She asked the young people in the room to raise their hands.
Then she talked about young voters who had been excited about a congressional candidate who looked like them — only to learn that redistricting had moved them into another district.
Someone in the room summed up the reaction in one word:
“Insane.”
Winsley seized on it.
“You cannot sit on that upset feeling,” she said. “Y’all know our generation, we’re the go-getters.”
Her message was to turn frustration into preparation — learning how the process works, organizing and showing up when decisions are being made.
From frustration to action
Venita Doggett, executive director of the Memphis Interfaith Coalition for Action and Hope, or MICAH, said frustration itself has become one of the barriers organizers encounter when trying to persuade people to vote.
People repeatedly hear that their vote is their power, Doggett said. But when they don’t see changes in their lives that feel like power, some simply disengage.
“If what I get in return does not match what power looks like, then I tap out,” she said.
That means organizers have to do more than tell people to vote, she added.
Doggett described MICAH members knocking on doors, organizing voter hubs in congregations and sending 12,000 handwritten postcards to voters. She talked about “ballot and brunch” events, text banking and relational organizing — encouraging people to reach into their own networks rather than waiting for strangers to do the work.
Winsley made a similar point.
Organizers, she said, cannot become so attached to traditional voter outreach that they miss the people they are trying to reach. Go where people already are. That might mean a church. It might mean a neighborhood gathering. It might mean a Southern Heritage Classic tailgate.
“You have to create that level of excitement again about voting,” Winsley said.
Dominik Whitehead, the NAACP’s chief of field, membership growth and unit sustainability, said the national organization is pursuing much the same strategy.
The NAACP announced in July that it plans to spend $20 million on its 2026 get-out-the-vote campaign, with a goal of mobilizing 6.5 million Black voters across 14 states and 33 congressional districts.
Whitehead said the organization is also listening to what younger voters are saying about civic engagement. Among younger people, he said, organizers are hearing a distinction.
“I’m not fighting for democracy,” Whitehead recalled young people telling them. “I’m fighting for our rights.”
That difference matters, he said, because organizations have to speak to people in language that connects civic participation to their everyday lives.
Voting — and what happens afterward
Doggett said that connection also requires confronting another uncomfortable reality: Some voters are dissatisfied with the people they have already elected. Voting cannot be the end of the relationship, she said.
Residents can attend municipal government meetings. They can organize around neighborhood concerns, write elected officials and show up when consequential decisions are being made.
“I remind people that you have power beyond the ballot,” Doggett said.
The conversation offered an immediate example. Several panelists pointed to the debate over data centers and their potential effects on electricity, water, noise, property values and surrounding communities. Doggett urged residents concerned about data center development to attend local government meetings and make their voices heard.
For her, that is what staying involved looks like: Voting determines who gets a seat at the table, but public participation helps determine what happens after they get there.
Young people press the conversation
If Friday evening’s Youth/College Community Town Hall focused largely on how young NAACP leaders could reach their peers, Saturday provided something of a companion scene.
Young people were already in the room. And they had questions.
One student talked about voter registration efforts on campus and the difficulty of persuading classmates who believe their voices are not being heard. Another wanted to know how young people could build meaningful relationships with veteran activists rather than simply being invited into the same room.
Others asked about racial and economic inequality, advocacy on predominantly white campuses and how someone their age could begin preparing for a career in politics.
Whitehead called the answer “intergenerational organizing.” “There is no way possible we’re going to win this fight without young people,” he said.
Young organizers bring fluency in social media, digital communication, influencers and rapidly changing youth culture, Whitehead said. Older activists bring institutional knowledge and experience earned through previous political and civil rights battles. Both have something the other needs.
Winsley put some of the responsibility directly on the younger generation: Listen to what veteran activists know, she said. Then take that knowledge and execute.
“You know the algorithms,” Winsley told the young people. “You know social media. You know how to use your platform. You know your voice. Everyone in here that’s a young person is a leader.”
Doggett offered an even simpler model for bridging generations: Ride together.
She recalled carpooling with an older activist — a “seasoned freedom fighter” — and using those rides to listen to his stories and absorb lessons from experiences she had not lived herself.
Everybody has a role
The town hall was moderated by Deidre Malone, president and CEO of The Carter Malone Group who also serves in leadership with the Memphis Branch NAACP and as communications chair for the Tennessee State Conference NAACP. Malone also serves as vice president of the Tri-State Defender Board of Directors.
As the session neared its end, Malone asked each panelist to strip away the court cases, organizing strategies and political analysis and answer one final question:
If people walked out of the church and did exactly one thing, what should it be?
Winsley pointed people toward voter information — knowing their status, their district and where and how to vote.
Franklin widened the answer.
“Everyone has a role to play in this democratic experiment,” he said. “It’s just that we have to be creative enough to create those roles that people play.”
Doggett urged people not to let the organizing stop when the town hall ended.
Meet somebody you didn’t know before you walked into the room, she said. Exchange information. Schedule another conversation.
Whitehead made his assignment measurable. Find five people. Then ask those five people to do something with you before Election Day. It brought the morning back to where it began.
Register. Vote. Bring somebody with you.
Then stay involved.
