Activists in rural Georgia seek more robust effort to get Black voters to the polls

The Rev. Ezekiel Holley was in his early 20s when white supremacists burned down two Baptist churches in Terrell County, Georgia. Local activists had used the spaces to organize a few years before the Civil Rights Movement won federal protections for Black Americans at the ballot box.

So four years ago, when Black Georgians in rural counties proudly marched to the polls, where they helped determine the outcome of a presidential election and sent two Democrats to the US Senate, Holley was elated.

This year, as Holley ambles with a cane through the backroads of the Terrell County seat of Dawson, knocking on doors of Black Georgians in a region where turnout is historically low, he worries he’s not seeing the same level of outreach that lifted President Joe Biden to a narrow win in 2020 in Georgia, which once again has emerged as a pivotal swing state in this year’s race for the presidency.