*Roughly 40 Black senior citizens in rural Georgia were on board a bus bound for the polls on Monday, Oct. 15, when a Georgia government official ordered them off, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
According to the report, the trip was organized by the Black Voters Matter group, which is embarking on a bus tour across several southern states with the goal of urging Black people to vote.
A complaint from an unnamed caller tipped off a Jefferson County clerk about the bus, which was painted with the words “The South is Rising Tour.” The so-called concerned citizen felt the occupants shouldn’t be allowed at the polls.
Yesterday, we experienced voter suppression in Louisville, Georgia.
We had a whole busload of beautiful black elders ready to go vote when the County Commissioner shut us down and made our elders get off the bus without having the chance to vote. Share this to spread the word! pic.twitter.com/fvULloAz4J— Black Voters Matter (@BlackVotersMtr) October 17, 2018
BVM co-founder LaTosha Brown believes the phrase on the bus drew the wrong attention from the wrong person and they called the county government offices, which led to the senior citizens being asked to leave the bus.
via The HuffPost:
Jefferson County Administrator Adam Brett said the trip, set to depart from a county-run senior center, was political and therefore violated guidelines imposed on county-sponsored events, the AJC reported. Although Black Voters Matter is a nonpartisan organization, Jefferson County Democratic Party Chairwoman Diane Evans helped organize the event.
Officials “felt uncomfortable with allowing senior center patrons to leave the facility in a bus with an unknown third party,” Brett told the AJC. “No seniors at the Jefferson County senior center were denied their right to vote.”
Brown pushed back on Brett’s reasoning for ending the trip.
“We knew it was an intimidation tactic,” she told the AJC. “It was really unnecessary. These are grown people.”
Yesterday, we experienced voter suppression in Louisville, Georgia.
We had a whole busload of beautiful black elders ready to go vote when the County Commissioner shut us down and made our elders get off the bus without having the chance to vote. Share this to spread the word! pic.twitter.com/fvULloAz4J— Black Voters Matter (@BlackVotersMtr) October 17, 2018
In a video posted to Black Voters Matter’s Twitter page, Brown says “What happened was a real issue. But it ain’t going to stop us. Can’t stop, won’t stop.”
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