Black Voters in Georgia Are Mobilizing as Voting Rights Face New Threats

Decisions made in courts across the country are changing the rules of voting and shifting Black political power. Capital B is tracking the fight for voting rights to show who is affected, where power is shifting, and what the changes mean for Black communities nationwide.

For voting rights stories from across the country, visit our Voting Rights in America page.

Recent attacks on Black voting rights have strengthened Walden University professor Kisha Walker’s resolve to cast a ballot in this year’s midterm election — and she’s not going alone.

The 54-year-old Atlanta NAACP committee chair and South Fulton resident said she recently started training to do local voter outreach for Fulton County. Her goal is to get as many Black voters to the poll as possible, especially young people.

“I’m not one that’s going to sit idly by — and if you’re in my reach, you’re not going to sit idly by, either,” Walker told Capital B Atlanta.

Concerns about emerging threats to voting rights are fueling a greater sense of urgency for Black voters to cast ballots in this year’s midterm elections, according to leaders of some of Georgia’s most prominent voter mobilization groups. 

Key voting rights leaders say the U.S. Supreme Court’s April decision in Louisiana v. Callais was a five-alarm fire for many Black Americans. It has amplified concerns about FBI probes of Fulton County’s election ballots, attempts to limit mail-in voting, and suggestions that National Guard troops may patrol polling locations.

The court’s ruling in Callais weakened key portions of the 1965 Voting Rights Act and ended Black voting rights protections that existed since the Civil Rights Movement. 

It effectively made it legal for states to draw political maps that dilute Black voting power as long as that dilution isn’t the explicitly stated purpose. Voting rights advocates say the new reality resulted in higher turnout rates in Georgia and other battleground states for this year’s Democratic party primary races.  

Voting mobilization activists expect that trend to continue during fall elections that could decide the balance of power in the Senate and inside the state Capitol in Atlanta, in addition to the state’s next governor.

But the full fallout from Callais won’t be felt in Georgia until after the midterm election in November, according to Black Voters Matter co-founder Cliff Albright. Republicans are expected to redraw the state’s political maps following the election after backing off drawing new maps in June due to  fears doing so would energize the Democratic Party’s largely Black voting base and jeopardize the GOP’s majority control of the Georgia General Assembly.

That outcome could change if Democrats win control of the legislature for the first time in more than two decades. Former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms has vowed to veto any maps that dilute Black voting power if she’s elected governor.

“At that point, we’ll have a better idea of exactly how much damage they’re trying to do,” Albright told Capital B Atlanta. “The short answer is we’ve yet to see it play out.”

Black Voters Matter is one of many voter engagement groups kicking off comprehensive get-out-the-vote campaigns this fall to educate Black voters on how to check their registration status, inform them about the voting process, candidates and issues, and arrange transportation to the polls.

The organization and others said they are now having to do more with less since many of their nonprofit funders have pulled back on donating in response to President Donald Trump’s attacks on diversity, equity, and inclusion programs and his anti-progressive federal government crackdown. Collaboration between groups has increased to make up for lost revenue.

They’re also continuing their Black Youth Renaissance Tour to get out the vote at HBCUs across Georgia. New initiatives, such as a Grassroots & Grills campaign, involve hosting local voter engagement barbeques at gathering spots across the state.

Rural Black voter engagement is an even greater focus this year, according to Albright. Black Voters Matter and its local grassroots partners are ramping up targeted engagement events in places like middle and southwest Georgia, in addition to major metros like Atlanta, Savannah, and Macon.

“We’ve got partners in 80 counties across Georgia,” Albright said. “It’s about supporting the local groups in these rural areas that are already doing amazing work.”

The NAACP announced in July that it’s spending $20 million to register 6.5 million Black folks across the nation this fall. Atlanta NAACP President David Means said his organization has launched voting awareness campaigns aimed at Black churchgoers, families, and veterans in support of those efforts.

The group’s tactics include phone banking, text messaging, and door-to-door canvassing, in addition to hosting events aimed at creating more awareness about the election. Its leaders are also partnering with Black sororities and fraternities, the Eastern Stars, and the Nation of Islam to get out the vote.

“We will be doing door knocking,” Means told Capital B Atlanta. “We also want to make [Black voters] aware that if they miss so many elections, [the state] can purge your name [from the voter rolls].”

Overall Black voter participation decreased in 2024 despite major concerns about affordability that year. But frustration over high electric bills fueled a roughly 15 percentage point surge in Black voting across Georgia in 2025, according to an Atlanta Journal-Constitution analysis. and the election of two Democrats to the state’s Public Service Commission. 

Some Black voters like Atlanta resident Velma, who declined to give her last name, have grown cynical about voting at all.

The 66-year-old Mechanicsville neighborhood resident told Capital B Atlanta that she hasn’t voted since Barack Obama left office. She said she was concerned about the impact of Louisiana v. Callais, but not enough to vote in November despite also expressing frustration about the rising cost of living and stagnant wages.

“I don’t think I ever will [vote again] because I don’t trust nobody at this point,” Velma said. “They show their true colors.”

Getting the word out about Louisiana v. Callais and its impact on voting rights remains a challenge for voter mobilization groups. Capital B Atlanta found some Black voters weren’t aware of the decision or how it could impact their communities.

Atlanta resident Rikia Davis hadn’t heard about Louisiana v. Callais, but once she did, she said it strengthened her resolve to vote in November.

The 40-year-old mother from South Carolina, who has lived in Atlanta for more than 10 years, said her family always instilled in her the value of voting.

“It makes me want to vote more,” Davis said of Callais. “You’re taking away our voice, how we can tell what’s going on in our community, what’s going on in our neighborhood. So it’s kind of unfair.”

Rasean Hodge also wasn’t aware of Callais, but expressed disapproval and a stronger desire to vote once he learned of the Supreme Court decision.

“You can’t suppress the Black vote,” Hodge said. “It’s the most important thing we can do to rise. Support people that support us.”

This year, opposition to data centers in metro Atlanta could amplify Black voter engagement, according to Brionté McCorkle, executive director of Georgia Conservation Voters, a nonprofit that mobilizes voters concerned about environmental justice issues.

McCorkle said conversations with voters during education events throughout the state this year reveal opposition to data centers is widespread, bipartisan, and crosses racial lines.

“We haven’t really seen an issue so salient be front and center in the way that it is when it comes to the issue of data centers in the state,” she said. “There is a special kind of energy to take that to the polls in November to hold elected officials accountable for what they are and are not doing to stand with the people.”

For Walker, she’s urging Black voters not to be fearful or apathetic about voting in November.

“We can’t sit or stand idly by and just watch our [civil rights] fade away, especially the right to vote,” she said.

The deadline to register for the fall midterms in Georgia is Oct. 5. Advanced voting begins Oct. 13 and ends Oct. 30. Click here for a list of early voting locations in Fulton County.

Read More: 

• Black Faith Leaders Warn Voting Rights Rollback Threatens Georgia
• Black Georgia Voters Could Lose Districts They Fought Decades For

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