On 15 October, the first day of early voting in North Carolina, mostly Black students from North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State University (NC A&T), Bennett College and the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG) marched from their college campuses to their nearest polling sites for the first day of early voting.
Previously, students were able to vote on their respective campuses; however, late last year, with Republicans at the helm, the North Carolina board of elections removed several polling sites from local colleges: UNCG, NC A&T, Western Carolina University (WCU) and Elon University. As a result, students have taken it upon themselves to organize voting. The marches – two, so far – took about two hours round trip, but protecting their right to vote, the students say, is worth it.
“I think that a lot of students wanted to come and march because they knew that it would make a statement,” said Dihanna Williams, a student at NC A&T. “It would show them that, despite y’all taking away something that should be a right to us, we’re still going to go out and vote because that’s also a right for us and that’s something that our ancestors fought so hard for us to accomplish. I don’t think that anything would have gotten in the way of A&T students voting.”…