The Wichita NAACP Blog: Wichita Branch is launching its Voter Registration "20 by 10" campaign!

Profile in Courage: Dr. Ronald W Walters

As the President of the Wichita NAACP Youth Council in July of 1958, Dr. Walters led the group as they conducted the first successful student-led sit-in of the Civil Rights movement. Sit-Ins were not an approved tactic of the NAACP in 1958 so when the Branch and Youth council asked for the support of the National Office, they were turned down. It required an extraordinary amount of courage for Ron as the Youth President and Chester I Lewis, the branch President, to press forward over the objections of the National Office. When the sit-in ended in August of that same year, the Dockum drug store on the corner of Broadway and Douglass in Wichita Kansas was integrated - along with the entire Rexall Drug store chain and all its subsidiaries. Following the success of the Dockum Sit-In, the Oklahoma City Branch Youth Council conducted a sit-in that August. From there, the tactic spread throughout the Midwest. In 1960, a group of young men and women from SNCC conducted a sit-in in Greensboro North Carolina which many mistakenly believe to have been the first... Dr. Walters went on to become known throughout the world for his knowledge of African American politics and leadership. He headed the African American Leadership Institute and Scholar Practitioner Program of the University of Maryland, served as Distinguished Leadership Scholar at the James MacGregor Burns Academy of Leadership, and retired as Professor Emeritus of the University of Maryland College Park. Dr. Walters was a dear friend, a supporter, and a mentor, and he will be sorely missed... July 1938 - September 2010

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Wichita Branch is launching its Voter Registration "20 by 10" campaign!

About week ago I posted information about the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) and the disparity we found when comparing the number of licenced drivers in the State against the number of registered voters. Since then we conducted an informal poll on the AA-Roundtable, a local networking E-list.

Our poll question simply asked, "When you obtained or renewed your Kansas Drivers License, were you given any information concerning Voter Registration?"

The results were as follows:

YES - 0%

I think so - 0%

I don't recall - 7%

I don't think so - 28%

No I wasn't - 64%

We are continuing to gather information through personal interviews and observation of the operations at the DMV, but at the same time, we are pleased to annouce the beginning of what we are calling our "20 by 10" campaign. The idea is to add an additional 20,000 registered voters in the State of Kansas by the year 2010.

We will accomplish this through targeted procedural and legislative advocacy efforts designed to make the State's statute and practices reflect the spirit and intent of the NVRA.

We will be meeting with Secretary of State in a couple weeks on this issue. Additionally, we've reached out to our Sedgwick County Voter Coalition partners, namely the League of Women Voters, to make this a more collaborative effort. Pending the outcome of our discussions with the SOS, we are also prepared to put together some draft legislation for the upcoming Kansas Legislative session.

If you would like more information on Voter Registration, the "20 by 10" campaign, or if you'd like to register to vote, please send us an email at: politicalaffairs@wichitanaacp.org