I'm in Douglas, Georgia, an hour and a half from nowhere, where you are greeted with Confederate flags at the town entrance. I’m here for Olivia Pearson, the first Black city commissioner.
Olivia Pearson was arrested by #BrianKemp for supposed vote interference, that is, helping disabled voters. Even a white jury threw it out in minutes.
The Wall Street Journal has just endorsed Governor #BrianKemp for president. And the New York Times has also virtually endorsed Kemp as the proper nominee for the Republican Party. This is the guy who created and signed #SB202, or as the NAACP calls it, Jim Crow 2.0!
The people we spoke to in #Atlanta told us that the lines have tripled, not because of higher voting but because it was a practical impossibility under the new law to mail in your ballot. #SB202gregpalast.com/raphael-warnoc…
From the 2020/2021 elections to November 2022, mail-in ballots in #Georgia plummeted by over 1 million, a breathtaking 81% loss of ballots — concentrated in Black-majority urban counties. gregpalast.com/mail-in-ballot…
So, within weeks of his victory, the Republicans in the Georgia legislature changed the law making it all but illegal to vote by mail in a runoff election. gregpalast.com/raphael-warnoc…
BREAKING: Cheryl Moses, editor of @BlkGwinnett Magazine, teamed with the Palast Fund to file a formal complaint with the US Dept of Justice Civil Rights Division. The legal action demands the reversal of severe restrictions on dropboxes in Georgia. #gapolgregpalast.com/justice-dept-t…
Last week, our investigations team reported what media missed: the number of mail-in votes in #Georgia plummeted by 83%, by over one million ballots since the last Election — almost all lost in the non-white majority Atlanta counties. gregpalast.com/mail-in-ballot…
Did it make a difference? You bet: Two out of three Georgia mail-in ballots vote Democratic.
Olivia Pearson was the first African-American to serve as Commissioner of Douglas, GA. When #BrianKemp became #Georgia’s Sec of State, he falsely charged her with vote tampering, a felony crime which meant she was threatened with 5-years in prison. gregpalast.com/marching-vigil…
Olivia Pearson was acquitted, of course, but Black turn-out dropped as voters were not unreasonably fearful of the new Jim Crow laws. Meanwhile the episode earned #BrianKemp the designation by the NYTimes as the “pioneer of present day #VoterSuppression.” gregpalast.com/marching-vigil…
"The young lady that I was with... she told me, Miss Olivia, I don't even want to vote after all of this. I don't want to vote anymore. I don't want to do it. And I had to beg her and explain to her that that's what they're doing it for." – Olivia Pearson gregpalast.com/marching-vigil…
#BrianKemp ordered the arrest of the first African-Americans elected to the Quitman school board – whom he charged with the felony crime of ballot stuffing! The #Quitman10 were paraded before cameras in handcuffs and orange suits, like they were terrorists in Guantanamo. #gapol
All charges were dropped — eventually — but not until one school board member, Latashia Head, who suffered from lupus, died. Her father said the cause was “stress brought about by Brian P. Kemp.” gregpalast.com/marching-vigil…
In our film, Vigilante, we talk to local journalist George Rhynes, who extensively covered Kemp's persecution of the #Quitman10. Ahead of the #GeorgiaRunoff elections on Dec 6, Rhynes wants to hold a showing of our film in Quitman, but he needs your help. gregpalast.com/georgia-screen…