WATCH: 'What Are We Getting For Our Loyalty?' ESSENCE Black Futures Now Honorees Speak Candidly About The Upcoming Election
Civil rights attorney Mawuli Davis and Moms Demand Action Executive Director Angela Ferrell-Zabala sit down with ESSENCE to discuss our Black future and critical voter issues.
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00:00 The perception is this, I have a 24 and a 26 year old graduates of Howard University and
00:07 and have voted and their peer group are they're really on the fence about whether or not they're
00:15 even going to vote right and and we are no longer in position to say do it because of what your
00:24 ancestors sacrificed. They're just not hearing that as a an appeal to vote. They want to see
00:31 some tangible results for black people and one of those that I think would be one of the clear,
00:40 a clear statement is an executive order around reparation.
00:50 Hello everyone, I'm Essence News and Politics Editor Melissa Noel. This month we are celebrating
00:56 Black History Month at Essence with our inaugural Black Futures List Now, highlighting select
01:03 change makers across the country who are fighting for our economic and racial justice. Today I have
01:10 the pleasure of being joined by a few of our honorees. First up we have Angela Farrell Zawala,
01:17 Executive Director of Moms Demand Action and Civil Rights Attorney Mauli Davis,
01:23 founding partner of the Davis-Boseman-Johnson Law Firm for a really important conversation on the
01:30 issues that matter to our communities as we approach the 2024 presidential election and I
01:37 know we have a lot to talk about so I want to just say thank you first of all for joining me today.
01:44 Thank you. Thank you. I want to start off of course on a positive note and I want to ask
01:51 each of you to tell me what it is that gives you hope about our black future as a community.
01:59 You're going to start off hopeful. Well I'll jump in and just say there's so many things that give
02:03 me hope about our community. I just, the way that I get up every day and I work on gun violence
02:09 prevention which is a really hard traumatizing issue. We understand how pervasive it is in this
02:14 country and we understand the impacts to black community but I get up every single day and make
02:18 the choice to do this because I know I wouldn't be here without hope. I wouldn't be here without
02:24 hope. I know that our ancestors, I know my family members have moved us to a place where we can do
02:29 this work and our voices can be elevated. I also look at young leaders nowadays that are stepping
02:36 up and taking things into their own hands and using different modalities to do that whether
02:41 through art and culture or whatever it may be. They're finding the spaces so I have a lot of
02:46 hope and I'm going to continue living on that hope to make sure that we can fight for safer
02:50 communities. Thank you for that. I share a lot of the same hope. My hope is based largely on the
02:59 work of our ancestors and their ability to accomplish incredible feats in spite of
03:07 meager resources and have so much more in resources than they had but they had will,
03:14 they had integrity and so standing on those ancestors' shoulders allows us to be able to see
03:23 above the negativity. It allows us to see beyond the challenges that we have and the young people.
03:34 We have a couple of young people that we work with, organizations, the Black Man Lab, the Black
03:40 Woman's Lab are really youth-focused gatherings where we're creating what we call safe, sacred,
03:46 and healing spaces and we're able to hear these young people's, their voices, their needs, their
03:52 desires, to be able to help them reimagine what the future could look like. I also have the honor
04:00 of working at one of our great HBCUs, Clark Atlanta University, in the Dr. Mack Jones
04:07 Political Science Department and so my students, they come in and they're on fire. They are ready
04:15 for a new day and not only are they ready for it figuratively, they are prepared to work towards
04:23 it and that gives you the fuel that you need in our work as organizers, public policy makers,
04:33 and I do have a challenging day because we do civil rights and so often our civil rights are
04:39 violated and it's hard to win in this arena under the current structure but we believe that we have
04:47 all that we need in our classrooms, in our organizations, in our community to be victorious
04:54 in our struggle for liberation. No, and I thank you both for kind of, you know, starting that
05:00 conversation here, looking ahead, right? We have so much we have to talk about for right now. We
05:06 know what's happened in the past but we also know that it's important to look ahead so I think it
05:11 brings us really greatly into the conversation where Angela, I'd like to ask you, you know,
05:17 Moms Demand Action looks at all forms of gun violence, not just the school shootings that
05:24 make the news but the everyday gun violence that is impacting Black and brown communities.
05:30 Can you share with us how you believe we can build not only on awareness but also take action
05:38 on a policy level starting within our local communities similar to the ways that you have
05:44 and many of the people that you work with do? Yeah, thank you for that very important question.
05:51 There's many things. You talked about building awareness and I think I don't want to overlook
05:55 that. Making sure that we're where the impact is most greatly felt is really important and we know
06:03 Black and brown communities in particular are disproportionately impacted by gun violence in
06:07 this country. It is a public health crisis and frankly it's been a public health crisis in Black
06:12 communities for some time. One in three Black people or someone that they care for has been
06:18 shot and killed by a gun. That's a big number and so we want to make sure that we're doing the
06:24 outreach where the people are, whether that is, I talked about young leaders, whether we're talking
06:28 about talking to young folks at HBCUs, we're talking about talking with people in their
06:34 communities and make sure that they are included in strategy. It's critical because they often
06:41 know exactly what is needed, they just are lacking either the resources to accomplish or really scale
06:47 up what they're doing. We want to make sure that we're centering the stories of Black survivors and
06:52 students and volunteers and also leaders and elected officials that have stepped up to help
06:57 address this crisis and so many other and that gets to electing people that actually represent us,
07:04 whether it is, you know, again we have so many champions right now that are doing the incredible
07:08 work, but also looking inward and seeing how do we represent ourselves. Are there folks within
07:13 our own ranks that we should be pulling through or building a bench that represent at every single
07:18 level, whether it is governmental or elected officials or it's in different industries,
07:24 we need representation and that's how we make sure that we have a greater impact. There's also so
07:29 many policies when it comes to gun violence prevention that we can uplift and work on from
07:33 community violence intervention and prevention and healing funding that is critical. These are
07:38 often front line in communities where the violence is taking place, where the shooting is happening,
07:43 where the trauma is living and they're right there doing the important work but often are
07:48 under-resourced. We want to make sure that we're addressing root causes of the violence. While we
07:52 can have policies that are good about making sure we're keeping folks safe when it comes to gun
07:59 safety, we want to also make sure that we're looking at all the intersections of the things
08:03 that get us in a position where black and brown communities are disproportionately impacted.
08:08 And I would be remiss if I didn't say we need to work on things that disarm hate. We know that
08:13 people that have been convicted of violent or threatening hate crimes shouldn't have a gun
08:18 and we want to make sure that we're checking all gun violence, including police gun violence. So
08:23 there's lots of things to be done and we are constantly looking for ways and listening
08:26 to communities about what they need so that we're building our strategies and walking alongside
08:32 folks doing the work so that we can actually get to the end that we want to see.
08:36 No, and I appreciate that. And just a quick follow-up there, you know, you named a lot of
08:41 really great things there, but for a lot of voters, sometimes they may feel overwhelmed about
08:46 where to start. So can you offer any advice there on how, what's a simple way that someone can get
08:52 involved in potentially helping to advocate for policy or doing a little door knocking or just
08:58 something simple where they could get started right now? Yeah, that's a great question. I get
09:02 that oftentimes I travel around the country and meet different folks. And even my, I'm a mother
09:07 of four and I have my two oldest, the twins are 22. And I often have these conversations with them.
09:13 It starts very local. It starts with your household. It starts with your block. It starts
09:18 with your community, your church, wherever you go, having those conversations and just talking
09:24 about what's at stake, what's happening, but not just talking about all the things that we know as
09:28 black community that are like impact us, that not just talking about, for instance, the gun violence
09:33 that are happening in neighborhoods around us or the fact that we have so many survivors of gun
09:38 violence in this country, but also what can we do about it? There is possibility to do something.
09:43 This is not an inevitability. This is not a natural disaster. This is something that we
09:48 actually can take steps to manage and measure and change. And so I think having those conversations
09:55 is really important. That's a very first step, because as you said, oftentimes people are pulled
09:59 into so many things in their day-to-day lives. And while this is something that impacts them and
10:04 that they're concerned about, they really have to prioritize where they put their energy. I think
10:08 just having a conversation, once you have that conversation, you might get a small group of folks
10:12 and say, Hey, what can we be doing in our neighborhood, our community, or how can we be
10:16 utilizing the resources that we have to make it different, to make really material impact and
10:23 change? Law and policy, very important. But we also need to figure out what are the day-to-day
10:28 things that are going to help people not just to survive, but to thrive. So I always say,
10:33 let's start with having those conversations with folks. You can always reach out to our
10:37 organizations, Moms Demand Action, Students Demand Action. There are others around that
10:40 are doing incredible work. But I think having that conversation first and getting people
10:44 in the habit of understanding that even when we see tough stuff going on around us, even when
10:50 it feels insurmountable, that if we put one foot in front of the other and we get a team of people
10:56 to do that, our neighbors, our community leaders, then we actually have momentum and power to make
11:02 some difference and make some change when it comes to this issue. Thank you, Angela. And Maui,
11:07 to bring you back into the conversation here, we're talking about gun violence. And when it
11:13 comes to policing, we know that policing and race were signature issues of the 2020 election
11:21 presidential campaign. And achieving police accountability on the federal level, however,
11:28 has been met with several obstacles. The George Floyd Justice in Policing Act was passed in March
11:35 of 2021 by the House, but it did not actually go through in the Senate. And President Biden
11:42 had an executive order on policing that he signed on the second anniversary of Floyd's
11:48 murder in 2022, but that has yet to be implemented. What kind of impact can these setbacks have on
11:56 voters and voter turnout? And what are some things that you think that we can do about that? Because
12:03 in some ways, we are hearing and seeing voters being despondent a bit about what their impact
12:11 really can be. Sure, sure. No, that's a great question. And what we as civil rights lawyers
12:19 here in the Deep South realize is that what we're experiencing in terms of police violence
12:26 in our communities, it's not localized. It's really a national issue that continues. And so often,
12:35 we want to really isolate that police violence is happening just in the South or just in the
12:42 rural areas, but it's happening in our cities, in our small towns, because really what this system
12:49 has said is that Black lives are really not valued, right? And that's why the organizing effort has to
12:59 continue to lift it up. One of the things that's been interesting is that we have one of what we
13:05 believe is probably one of the most horrific death cases involving police violence of Deacon
13:11 Johnny Holloman Sr., who was a deacon leaving a Bible study on his way to his wife and had a minor
13:20 traffic accident and was tased. Ultimately, he dies at the hands of an Atlanta police officer.
13:27 And the coverage has been different than the George Floyd and right after. It's almost as if
13:38 certain media outlets have put a wet blanket kind of on, like essentially America's had enough
13:45 of seeing Black bodies, because there's a video of seeing Black people tortured and killed at the
13:54 hands of police, but it continues to happen. So even though it's underreported by certain
14:00 media outlets, it doesn't mean that the numbers have in fact decreased. Here in Atlanta,
14:05 which has often been called the Black Mecca, we have right now excessive force cases at 100%
14:12 African-American. And Atlanta, even as the Black Mecca, is not a 100% African-American city.
14:22 And so it demonstrates that there is and remains a crisis of policing in our communities,
14:30 in communities of color, but in Black communities in particular. And our work is for our elected
14:38 officials to be held accountable, that they have to address how will you deal with the policing of
14:46 our communities and not allow police unions and other police interests to outweigh what we,
14:56 our lived experience. This is what we see. This is what we're dealing with. And it's real.
15:02 And so the organizing efforts, Southern Center for Human Rights has been incredible in their work
15:09 here in Atlanta and in the South to lift this up. Attorney Tiffany Williams Roberts has done
15:15 a tremendous job of highlighting that policing is still an issue. So as we attack
15:22 these individual cases, we also have to address the system, the system that says our lives are
15:30 valued less, that we can withstand more pain than other people, all kinds of misnomers that
15:39 put our young people at jeopardy on a daily basis as they drive, they walk, they go to school,
15:46 they shop. In all of those spaces, we are at risk. And so that's why our organizing has to remain
15:56 consistent and we have to keep pushing it up to the top of the agenda. And I agree. I think there
16:02 is some fatigue by Black folk as it relates to electoral politics that, what do we see tangible
16:10 that has changed as a result of our voting efforts? And so we also push forward the issue
16:19 of reparations and stirring that. This has been huge, right? Huge at both local,
16:25 some local municipalities, state, national, but because we're seeing stalling at the national,
16:32 at the federal level, how can we keep people engaged? And that burnout, that fatigue that's
16:38 happening, how can we continue to counter that? We encourage people to be in an organization.
16:44 Kwame Ture would say, "Organize, organize, organize." And I think that is our work,
16:49 that we're at a point that everyone has to be in an organization, period, right?
16:58 Just pick one or pick two, but be in an organization and not on the sidelines.
17:03 We don't have any time for just analysis and critiquing. We have to be engaged in taking
17:10 control of our own destiny, our own future, one that we imagine, one that we see, and not fall
17:18 into the idea that it's only what they say can happen, can happen. Whatever we want to happen,
17:26 can happen when we're organizing around it and addressing the issues. We have been getting out
17:32 organized for a long time. That's the reality of it. And there have been times that we have peaked
17:39 and we see, "Oh, wow, we can do this. We got Georgia. We were able to do this." So the question
17:45 for each of us, are we prepared to do more? Are we willing to overcome any of our differences
17:54 and find where we can be unified around certain things and do that work together?
17:59 - I'm hearing from both of you, consistency, collaboration, and also just the engagement
18:06 in the groups that do actually exist to help push efforts like this forward. So I think that
18:15 brings me to the last question I have here, which I will pose to both of you, which just has to do
18:22 with, we're talking about voting here and the issues that matter to our communities. When it
18:26 comes to these issues of policing, gun violence, as we talked about a little bit, youth involvement
18:33 and activism, is there any candidate that's currently on the ballot for president here in
18:40 this 2024 election that is being responsive to these issues that we continue to see, not only
18:47 in the polls, we don't just need the polls to tell us, we see it in our own communities that people
18:52 are truly concerned about? And Angela, I'll ask you to go first.
18:56 - Yes, absolutely. The first thing I'd like to say is that the election is just where it starts.
19:02 When we exercise our electoral power, that is just the beginning. I think sometimes that's not
19:07 communicated that way. People think that you vote and the person's in and everything's solved.
19:14 I think what Maloui said is absolutely right. We have to hold people accountable and organized.
19:19 We have to hold their feet to the fire for what we bring them in to represent us. So we have
19:25 the obligation and the power to make sure that we're holding people to account. And with that
19:30 being said, I think some of the few, there's so many people that are actually doing incredible
19:35 work all up and down the ballot. We'll start at the top. You mentioned presidential. The Biden
19:39 Harris administration, hands down, has been this strongest in history when it comes to gun
19:44 violence prevention efforts. They've done everything in their power and worked hand and hand
19:49 with us to make sure that they're passing the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act that happened,
19:55 BISCA, we call that, that was a bipartisan effort that broke a 30-year, nearly 30-year log jam
20:02 at the federal level. But all down, they're doing everything from making sure funds get to
20:09 violence interruption groups on the ground. They're making sure that they're looking and
20:14 centering survivors and communities most impacted. So we've had a great time working with them and
20:20 there's so much more to be done. So we are going to do everything in our power to make sure that
20:24 they come back. We also do not want to roll back progress that we've made. We want to continue
20:28 moving forward and do so much more. I think around the country, there's so many people I'm looking at,
20:33 our very own representative, Lucy McBath, who was one of our Moms Man Action volunteers in Georgia,
20:40 who is absolutely incredible, has her own story, our son Jordan Davis, who we want to get back in
20:48 and is doing incredible, incredible work. We have Mayor Quentin Lucas in Kansas City. We have our
20:53 own volunteers who are stepping up and not just advocating for good policy, but now going and
20:58 running for office and winning and writing that good policy. So I think there's lots to look out
21:03 for, but at the end of the day, and this is what I tell my 22-year-olds because they are a prime,
21:08 and when they go, especially my son, who doesn't like a person or doesn't have exactly everything
21:13 that you are looking for and necessarily a candidate, there's two things I say.
21:16 Number one, we got to look broader and look at how this is going to have a bigger impact on so
21:22 many things, because if we're not showing up and making our voices heard by voting, even though we
21:27 may not always be the most excited, like my son is, you know, he's constantly thinking, like,
21:32 do I want to vote for this person or this person? It's like, you have to make your voice heard,
21:37 because if you don't, someone else will make decisions on your behalf. So that's one. We
21:41 don't want to roll back incredible, important progress that we've made. And I think if you
21:47 don't like what you're seeing, then we need to get up and we need to step up, and we can also
21:52 run for office, up and down, from school board all the way up to U.S. You're thinking about our
21:58 two chambers, U.S. government. We can run for office, or we can go to organizations, as was
22:06 said earlier, that are actually doing this important work. We cannot be on the sidelines,
22:10 and so there's so much that we can do, and we can drive and really drive that hope forward,
22:16 because there is, if we have a vision for the future and what we're looking for, and we walk
22:20 that walk and walk the path, doesn't mean it won't be hard, but we will continue to move forward,
22:24 and we will get to where we need to get to. Thank you for that. So get up, get out,
22:28 don't sit at the keyboard and complain. Actually get involved in what actually exists. I pose that
22:34 same question to you, Auli, as well, about is there any candidate that is speaking to these
22:41 issues right now that we are talking about that are so important to Black and brown communities?
22:47 I think there's a challenge, and I think the Democratic Party has a challenge, and that
22:55 there has to be... The perception is this. I have 24 and 26-year-old graduates of Howard University
23:05 and have voted, and their peer group, they're really on the fence about whether or not they're
23:14 even going to vote, right? And we are no longer in position to say, "Do it because of what your
23:22 ancestors sacrificed." They're just not hearing that as an appeal to vote. They want to see some
23:30 tangible results for Black people, and one of those that I think would be one of the clear...
23:39 A clear statement is an executive order around reparations, right? I think that the time has
23:46 come. I think there has to be some radical movement, and I don't think it's radical anymore.
23:51 I just think it's about really raising an issue that undergirds all of what we experience when
23:59 we look at what's happening in policing, when we look at what's happening as it relates to
24:05 our treatment in public health. All of that's undergirded by the fact that we have yet to reckon
24:12 with the vestiges of our enslavement, and Jim Crow, and this country's not really being honest
24:23 about our issues around racism, white supremacy, structural racism, institutional racism,
24:31 and those issues. And reparations allows us to really begin to frame that better,
24:38 and that needs to happen, and an executive order can be issued. The work Cam Howard has been doing
24:44 around this issue in terms of Earn the Vote, earntheblackvote.net, I'd encourage people to
24:51 take a look at that. The Democratic Party's going to have to do something different on a national
24:56 level in order to really engage young Black voters and a lot of Black people who are wondering,
25:04 what are we getting for our loyalty and allegiance? And so that's going to be a
25:11 challenge, but I think it's time. We've worked around this issue since I was a law student,
25:17 and that's been quite a while, and I think we're ready. I think the Democratic Party has to have
25:24 the courage to do something differently, and it can't be so evenly matched with other politics
25:32 that it's hard for us to really see and feel the difference. I know Angela has had great results
25:40 as it relates to this administration in the space that she's been working in, and I think that has
25:48 to be lifted up more as well, because these young people are getting most of their information from
25:53 social media, and they don't still feel the results that I thought we were all expecting
26:01 when this election in 2020. Yeah. I want to thank you both for joining me today and really sharing.
26:11 I know we only had a limited amount of time, but I think we got in quite a bit of information here,
26:16 especially with resources and organizations that our audience can go to to find out more
26:21 information, and as each of you said, to get involved. So I want to thank you both, Maui Davis,
26:27 Angela Farrell Zavala, for joining us this afternoon. Once again, everyone, my name is
26:31 Melissa Noel, News and Politics Editor at Essence. We celebrate Black History 365, but of course,
26:38 especially this month, we are spotlighting our honorees for our inaugural Black Futures Now
26:44 list and the work that they are doing, particularly in this important presidential election year.
26:50 Thank you so much for joining me. Thank you.
26:53 (upbeat music)