Black Voters Matter co-founder LaTosha Brown spoke at WashU this month at an event co-hosted by WashU Votes, the Association of Black Students and the Social Programming Board.
“Empowering Black and Brown Voters: Fireside Chat with Black Voters Matter Co-Founder LaTosha Brown” was held in Holmes Lounge on Wednesday evening, March 8. Her talk was followed by a Q&A session moderated by Demarion Delaney ’25, a Goldman Fellow in the St. Louis Fellows Program.
“She is a very engaging speaker, and one of our goals is to build excitement around the busy election season,” said Hannah Pignataro, co-chair of WashU Votes. “We also wanted to have a discussion about empowering a younger and more diverse electorate, composed of racial and socioeconomic minorities,” noting that they have been disproportionately impacted by changes to voting laws.
Brown, an award-winning visionary, thought leader and cultural activist, builds coalitions focused on boosting Black voter registration and turnout, and increasing democracy engagement in marginalized communities.
In her fireside chat, Brown spoke about the power of speaking up and the necessity of organizing to impact change for the collective good.
“This is not the moment to be quiet,” she said. “If you are not a part of organization, sign up today, find an organization. Your power is when we have collective power.”
Brown founded the Southern Black Girls & Women’s Consortium, which has grown into a $100 million, 10-year initiative to invest in organizations that serve Black women and girls. Brown is also the 2020 Hauser Leader at the Center for Public Leadership at Harvard Kennedy School, the 2020 Leader in Practice at Harvard Kennedy School’s Women and Public Policy Program, and a 2020-2021 American Democracy fellow at the Charles Warren Center at Harvard.
“There are some groups that are doing abolitionist work, some groups that are doing criminal justice reform, work and education reform, and you got to figure out a way to get those people to work almost like a coordinated campaign,” she said. “It’s not just about the vote or the election of a candidate. It’s really about how do we actually build power collectively, and put people in office that are going to respond to those things?”
Throughout her chat and in responses to questions from students that included subjects like the role of journalism in democracy, the difficulty of building third-party movements, and voter suppression, Brown emphasized that citizens must use every bit of power they have to impact society — by voting, by running for office, and by building networks for collective action.
“You need to grab every piece of power that is available to you, and you’ve got to change every aspect of society around you,” said Brown. “And part of doing that is voting. Some of you should be thinking about running for office; you all can actually govern beyond your political identity, because you want to advance humanity.
“I want you all to shift the way that you’re seeing yourselves, instead of seeing yourselves just as citizens, citizens of this country. What if you started thinking of yourselves as founders of a new America?”
WashU Votes is the Gephardt Institute’s undergraduate student group that implements peer-to-peer strategies to support the Institute’s comprehensive voter engagement strategy and Engage Democracy Initiative. If you would like to make a gift to support WashU Votes, please contact Colleen Watermon at cwatermon@wustl.edu.