Black voters asked to ignore the myth and go into the surveys after the lack of turnout last year

Ed Gordon, Maxine Waters, Jennifer McClellan, Revon Shavon Arline-Bradley and Marc H. Morial Speak during the Congress Black Caucus Foundation Annual Legislative Conference National Rathaus in Walter E. Washington Convention Center on September 25, 2025, in Washington, DC (Photo by Leigh Vogel/Getty Congress).

When black voters stay at home on election day, according to Marc H. Morial, President and CEO of the National Urban League, the results have great consequences.

Morial was weaning the participants of the annual legislative conference of the Black Caucus Foundation on Thursday, the myth that her voice does not matter.

The black turnout in 2008 was more than 65%than the candidate of the Democratic Party, Barack Obama, became the first African American president. The turnout was similar when Obama won the re -election four years later. And the democratic candidate Joe Biden also enjoyed a black voter participation of 64%during his campaign in 2020.

When Republican Donald Trump won his first term of office of the President in 2016, the black voter participation fell to 59%. It stayed the same last year when Trump won a second term against former Vice President Kamala Harris, a black woman who was the democratic candidate.

“We have to understand that politics and elections are important in this country and that all these bulls – do not play a role in politics and elections, is the formula of these oppression campaigns,” said Morial. “We don’t have to be caught in yesterday’s strategies and agenda and bring something new.”

With more than 100 panels and sessions, the state of democracy and the federal government, which affect diversity, justice and inclusion policy, elections and voting rights, was in the foreground for conference participants.

The US MP Jennifer McClellan (D-VA) said that during a trip to the National African-American Museum of History and Culture, she took the time to think about the victims that were brought for voting rights.

“If that means that I have to give my life so that you [her children] Can come true, it is, “she said.” We all have to accept that this is a crucial moment. “

The discussion participants discussed distrust, misinformation and unpredictability in Washington, DC and across the country.

Years before the ten-year census, Trump pushed the state legislation conducted by Republicans to create congress districts to keep the slim GOP majority in the US representative house during the intermediate elections in 2026. Several states, including Texas, Indiana and Ohio, discuss the topic.

In the meantime, the legislators of Missouri have recently passed a newly gerrymandered map of the eight districts of the state that Governor Mike Kehoe said he will sign this weekend. The change could provide the Republicans an advantage in a district of Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, a city democrat in Kansas.

The NAACP called for the process in court before the New card was approved. Others try to invalidate the card too invalid because Missouri’s constitution obliges the legislators to draw districts every 10 years after the census.

“The legislative hurried through a new vehicle postponed by Donald Trump,” said US MP Wesley Bell (D-Mo.), Who organized a jury with the judiciary. “Not because Missouri asked about it, but because he knows that he can’t win fairly.

“We need independent, transparent processes that people put before politics, and we have to remain organized because Trump and his allies are relentless, so we have to be,” said Bell.

The discussion participants emphasized that it would be complex for Democrats to make significant changes at the moment, with the congress of the Republicans and the Supreme Court of the United States a conservative advantage of 6: 3.

But the only constant mentioned dozens of times during the discussion: people should vote.

Christopher Bruce, political and interest representative director of Georgia’s ACLU, said that the evidence lies in figures with around 90 million people who have not chosen in the elections of the past year.

“If you are not in this democracy what happens, literally … it becomes a dictatorship,” said Bruce. “Democracy is set up for you so that you can win. The question is that you want to have this power to achieve this? And if you don’t, people will all take their lives together.”

Rep. Al Green (D-Texas) informed the participants that they are responsible for the choice of blood for this opportunity to secure this from 1965 from their black ancestors. It paved the way for the choice of 62 Black Congress Caucus members as well as 50 Latinos and 20 Asians.

“We have a responsibility, an obligation to ensure that we do exactly what they did. They continued to march,” said Green. “The battle is not over yet. Yes, we feel comfortable. Yes, we have beautiful cars, but don’t confuse the consolation with freedom. Do not confuse it with liberation. Do not confuse it with freedom.”