ATLANTA — A certain famous Morehouse College alum would no doubt approve of the students marching along an Atlanta street, bound for the polls.
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Because that certain Morehouse alum marched many miles on mean streets to ensure the right to vote for people who looked like him.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. didn’t march all those miles so future generations could sit out elections. That’s why 19-year-old Dohnoven Dixon, a first-time voter, is walking the walk.
“Morehouse is a very special place,” he said. “There is a lot of social change historically here.”
Dixon could go to a polling place on his own, on his own time, and his vote would count the same.
But: “Us as brothers, getting together, marching to the polls, I think it signifies a lot,” he said. “Not only what we hope to achieve in the election this year, but also who we are as Morehouse.”
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He was among dozens of Morehouse College students who marched nearly a mile from campus to Flipper Temple A.M.E. Church to cast their ballots Wednesday afternoon.
Che Harmon-Williams, 18, is also a first-time voter. Lest there be any doubt, he said, young Black men are motivated and mobilized for this election.
“I think it shows the power in numbers, for sure, as well as the power we have as Black men,” he said.
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Chris Lambry, 19, is brimming with optimism about the election.
“I’m extremely excited,” he said. “I’m extremely hopeful and extremely optimistic about the entire election.”
Given Morehouse’s role in civil rights and social change, apathy is anathema on this campus. The march “insinuates what goes on here at Morehouse,” said student Jeremiah Hall, 19.
“It’s very much like Morehouse. It’s something I’d expect, to be marching down with my brothers.”
They assembled as a band of brothers – classmates, friends, fellow citizens – engaging in this most democratic of exercises: voting.