A small army of African-American women across the South is using networks originally forged in segregation to muster turnout for Democratic candidates nyti.ms/2yed5gp
The women are mobilizing in conservative states and districts, hoping to pull off upsets like Doug Jones’s Senate victory last year in Alabama, where 98% of black women voted for him and proved a critical base of support. nyti.ms/2QuTf7V 
"We're trying to stir up the spirits of the folks who’ve been turned off this damn process." — LaTosha Brown, in Greenville, Mississippi, co-founder of Black Voters Matter Fund nyti.ms/2QuTf7V
Kewyata Dice works as a nursing assistant in Americus, Georgia. She sat out the 2014 and 2016 elections, but has promised to vote in this one. "I feel like I should get out and make my vote matter," she said. "Make myself matter." nyti.ms/2QuTf7V
Kayla and Kiana Blaine in Tallahassee, Florida, are fueled by a protectiveness and fear about the fate of black men. They applaud Andrew Gillum’s opposition to Florida’s Stand Your Ground Law and are recruiting fellow FAMU students to get out the vote. nyti.ms/2QuTf7V
At age 11, Lorena Barnum Sabbs tried to integrate a theater. She was arrested and locked in the Leesburg Stockade. Now she runs a funeral home with a voter registration booth: "Baby, have you registered to vote? It's really easy; we can do it right here." nyti.ms/2QuTf7V
"When you invest in a black woman, she brings her house, her block, her church and her story," said Glynda C. Carr, co-founder of Higher Heights, a group that fosters black women’s political leadership. nyti.ms/2QuTf7V
