Posted by Kevin Robinson on November 13, 2020 · Leave a Comment (Edit)

“Voter suppression happens anywhere,” Abrams said on Tuesday, according to CBS News. “We changed not only the trajectory of Georgia, we changed the trajectory of the nation. Because our combined power shows that progress is not only possible, it is inevitable.”The Hill, How Stacy Abrams helped get out the Black Vote. By Austa Somvichian-Clausen | Nov. 10, 2020

While experiencing the scattered ashes of defeat, disappointment, and despair, some chart a different course toward an unexpected end. They triumph through the turmoil, transcend instead of tail off. The ashes only serve as a scene-setting backdrop and a foundation from which the Phoenix rises. 

Stacy Abrams is a 2020 tale of the rising out of the ashes of disappointment. Competitors saw her as a sore loser in her failed 2018 bid for the Georgia Governorship because she brought attention to the influence of various types of voter suppression. They heaped upon her dog whistled ashes of misogyny and racism clothed in the guise of partisan politics. Yet what would have buried many under pressure only fueled her accent. 

She did not stoop to merely exacting revenge; she sought loftier goals that would help many and bring the American dream one step closer to touching the lives of those at the margins. 

“Abrams had come close with the strategy: Her campaign and its allies registered more than 200,000 new voters in the run-up to the 2018 election. When Fair Fight and the New Georgia Project, two organizations founded by Abrams, tried again this year, they quadrupled their gains, registering more than 800,000 new voters.” How Stacey Abrams and her band of believers turned Georgia blue Politico By MAYA KING 11/08/2020 07:00 AM EST Updated: 11/08/2020 11:05 AM EST

Desirable achievements Stacy Abrams could only accomplish as an individual multiplied many times over by the potential of the thousands of new voters realizing their collective power. The state of Georgia realigned the political map by the voices of many. The new demographics can present a pretty picture, but cute pictures will change nothing and garner no more than a few idealistic pleasantries. 

What the new mosaic needed was a spark. The noun of this mosaic is required to transform into a verb to become something more. Malcolm Gladwell’s Tipping described people such as Ms. Abrams as Connectors.     

“their ability to span many different worlds is a function of something intrinsic to their personality, some combination of curiosity, self-confidence, sociability, and energy. The Tipping Point Malcolm Gladwell 

Gladwell perfectly described the organizing fortitude that she displayed. The new electorate’s willingness to congeal into a force enough to, Tip the Scales, overturn the Voter Suppression structure and free Georgia’s state to become a display of democracy. 

According to the 2019 Census estimate, Georgia’s population stands at 10.62 Million. The Atlanta Metro Area population is over 6 million 3 fifths of the population of the state. The Black population in that area is second to the New York City Metro area. 

How did Stacy Abrams motivate and inspire the vast black population in the Atlanta metro and the state of Georgia altogether? For years “Exact Match” was a law in Georgia that would potentially throw out votes for as little as a forgotten hyphen when matching Drivers’ license against the voter registration. From 2012 until 2018, 1.4 million voters were thrown out because of this law. Disproportioned amounts of disenfranchised have been people of color.

Stacy Abrams’ inspiration and 2018 lawsuits by various groups such as ProGeorgia, the Georgia Coalition for the People’s Agenda, and the New Georgia Project fought this bad law. As a result of many legal challenges, the Georgia Governor, Brian Kemp signed House Bill 316 largely repealing Exact Match. Two years later, and after more numerous demographic change and 800,000 newly registered voters, Stacy rose from the ashes as a modern-day Harriet Tubman.

Kevin Robinson, Executive Director of Accord1.