Black Caucus urges students to vote

Young voters credited with role in Obama win

By Kristin Pitts
Staff Writer

Friday, October 30, 2009

“How many of you are not registered to vote?” North Carolina Rep. Sandra Spaulding Hughes, D-Wilmington, asked a packed auditorium of Elizabeth City State University students.

Of the hundreds who had come to the North Carolina Legislative Black Caucus’ town hall meeting Friday, just three raised a hand. Hughes smiled at the crowd as she told the students about the importance of voting.

“The ‘08 election — you truly made a difference in that election,” Hughes told the crowd. Hughes who was among seven state representatives and two state senators attending the meeting, said she was proud and surprised to have an African American president in the White House in her lifetime. The 2008 presidential election, she said, was influenced by young voters.

“I’ve lived to be 65, and I never thought I would stand before you and say that we have an African American president,” Hughes said.

But Hughes urged the students not to stop there.

Shestressed the importance of continuing to vote, and more specifically, that students vote in the area in which they currently reside.

The issue of voting came up several times during the question and answer portion of the event.

“What do you do when you live in a city that doesn’t support your university?” Ray Robertson asked the panel.

Robertson went on to say that in the Elizabeth City Wal-Mart, there are sports and other productsfor the East Carolina University Pirates and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Tar Heels, but nothing for the ECSU Vikings.

State Rep. Alma Adams, D-Guilford, told Robertson that the best way to make his opinion heard would be through voting.

“You can control everything that’s going on by making sure that you vote,” Adams said.

Adams added that elected officials will continue to do what they’ve always done until voters take a stand.

“If you sit down, if you don’t vote, people will continue to do what they want to do,” Adams said.

Members of the Black Caucus also fielded students’ questions regarding employment opportunities. Several students, both graduate and undergraduate, expressed concerns regarding the nation’s economy.

State Rep. Angela Bryant, D-Nash, didn’t sugarcoat the nation’s economic downfall, but did tell students that as adults with advanced degrees, they were in a better position to get jobs after graduation.

Concerns were also addressed regarding the shortage of student housing in light of increasing enrollment numbers, and the fact that state Rep. Bill Owens, D-Pasquotank, had not come to either Black Caucus town hall meeting. State Rep. Earline Parmon, D-Forsyth, told the crowd that Owens had been invited to the event.

Students also spoke to legislators about their frustration with a recent article in The Daily Advance, in which the names of students who had been subpoenaed for hearings on the recent election protest were printed.

“Our names are being slandered in the paper,” one student said. Another student also expressed frustration, saying it “wasn’t right” for her name to have been printed in the paper.

Legislators said they were unable to address that specific issue before learning more about it.

Overall, the group pushed for students to become registered voters, and to make sure that they were voting in Elizabeth City rather than their home towns. That, they said, would be the best way to ensure that their concerns would be addressed. “If people don’t serve you, you don’t have an obligation to go out and vote for them,” Adams said.