All right, y'all, you know why we came out here.
I need you all to come register to vote.
I'm Jabari Banks, actor, artist, and musician,
best known for bringing "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" back to life.
Today I've been invited to take part in Mandela Day.
Nelson Mandela is a global icon.
He spent his entire life fighting for freedom,
equality, and justice,
and brought an end to Apartheid in South Africa.
Every year on Nelson Mandela's birthday, July 18th,
people in South Africa partake in an act of service
for their community inspired by his legacy.
My grandfather was the architect behind Mandela Day,
but it's really about getting involved,
getting dirty, putting on your gun boots,
putting on some gloves, and going out there.
Jabari:
will be taking Mandela Day global
by joining forces with the Nelson Mandela Foundation
and undertaking our own acts of service
in communities across the world.
Are you good to vote?
The Africans require,
want the franchise on the basis of one man, one vote.
They political independence.
Being denied the right to vote
goes against one's human rights.
Not only in South Africa,
but it has happened even in America.
Jabari:
almost all Black South Africans did not have the right to vote.
As a young man, he took on this fight for equality
and sacrificed 27 years of his life to prison as a result.
In 1994, he finally won.
Ndaba Mandela:
to get out there and vote.
My grandfather says,
"Let your choices reflect your hopes
and not your fears."
Shyneka:
with me, Shyneka, right here,
Shawty Shawty, and of course, Yung Joc.
So this morning we have a bright young star.
Jabari Banks! Good morning, son!
Good morning. Nice to speak with you all. How are you?
I know. Very nice to have you.
- Jabari: Thank you. - We have being seeing
your star just really explode in the past year.
Yeah, it's been a wild ride so far, and I love it. I love it.
We have to talk about the huge initiative that you're here to talk about.
- Voting in Atlanta. - Yes. Yes.
- So tell us all of it. - Yes, I am here for the voter registration drive
at Rose Circle Park from 4 PM to 8 PM. Be there or be square.
It's going down. It's going down.
I've come to Atlanta, Georgia, ahead of midterm elections
to volunteer at a voter registration drive.
It's important to help activate young people to vote
because we are the future, and to change the idea
that in our community voting doesn't really matter.
In 2021, the outcome of Georgia's senate elections
literally changed who made the laws of this country.
The reason for this change was the high turnout
of my fellow Gen-Z African-Americans,
many voting for the very first time.
With more elections later this year,
I'm here to remind them that every vote still matters.
It's important for me to use my profile in a positive way
because I want to be able to blaze a path
in the same way that my heroes have done for me.
I feel like our generation is the generation for change.
And so if I can help in that way in any way possible, I definitely will.
I actually cast my first vote in 2020.
My mom made me come out and vote.
And that was super dope to see a lot of young people actually voting,
and it really opened my eyes
to the power that I had and sharing my voice.
Another reason I'm keen to get to the park is Ciarra and Gavin,
two people who do a lot more than just turn up to vote.
They are two of the volunteer activists at today's drive.
- Yo. What's going on, y'all? - Gavin: Hey.
- Ciarra. Nice to meet you. - Ciarra, nice to meet you.
- Gavin, right? What's going on, man? - What's up, man?
My name is Gavin Kelly. I just turned 19.
I'm an honors computer information systems major at Howard University.
Just finished my freshmen year,
and voting rights is something that I truly do believe in passionately.
Taking part in my first voting drive,
I can get more people to cast their vote,
and I can also really engage with my community,
and that's something I take a lot of pride in.
My name is Ciarra Malone, I'm 23 years old,
and I am a voting rights organizer in Atlanta, Georgia.
When I graduated, I cared a lot about making sure
that I was helping minority communities,
and especially being involved in politics
and ensuring that we had elected leaders
that were creating change
that we wanted to see in those communities.
Okay, dope. Well, I'm here to help any way I can.
- Should I just set up some tents, put out some shirts? - Yeah, yeah.
All right. Hold on, before we do it, hands in. Hands in right here.
Team Mandela on three, all right?
- One, two, three! - All: Team Mandela!
You gotta turn it on.
Yo, yo. Okay, there we go.
We're in business now! Okay?
( chiming tune plays )
No? None of that?
Okay, my bad. My fault.
- Right here? - Yep.
We are all here today with a voter registration organization called HeadCount
who have registered more than one million young voters since 2004.
HeadCount is a non-profit.
We do voter registration drives just like this,
but we specifically focus on concerts and festivals.
We're really trying to bridge the gap of young people
who are going to concerts and festivals.
- Got you. - And the political aspect
of what the younger generation is doing right now.
That's incredible. You know, I do music, too.
So whenever I have my concert, y'all gotta come through.
- Absolutely, absolutely. - You know what I mean?
Azeez:
-
Because when we're talking about voting and stuff,
it can be very informational.
But when we have somebody that can communicate
and really express what we're trying to do, man, it's so important.
- That's what I'm here for, brother. - Truly, truly.
- We appreciate-- we appreciate the love. - Of course.
Thank you, man. Appreciate you.
- Guys, come on. - Oh, are those...
Jabari: I can't be doing all the work, all right, guys?
I need some teamwork here, okay?
It's so important for young people of color
across the world to have the right to vote.
Primarily because, unfortunately,
Black communities tend to be marginalized
and made invisible even to this day.
And so for young people to come forward
and to use their vote in order to influence politics in their country
is a tool of self-determination,
which was one of the principles that Nelson Mandela taught.
Man: Take two, A camera mark.
Lebohang:
when you don't vote, when you decide,
"Ah, nothing's gonna change anyway,"
what happens is the very same things
that make it very difficult for your life
to take form in the way it's supposed to,
those things only grow.
Those things only increase.
Now when young people exercise the right to vote,
they begin to opt into a system
where they are able to see their world transform, right?
Oftentimes, it is so slow,
but advocacy and freedom is a constant journey.
We gotta keep banging at that door.
Jabari: Mimi, you registered to vote?
- You registered? - All right.
Okay, okay. Just making sure.
You've got some forms right here.
We gonna get y'all right. We got some pins. We got some dope shirts.
Jabari:
doesn't always attract the crowds,
but add some music, and you attract attention.
All right, y'all, you know why we came out here.
I need you all to come register to vote.
We got some T-shirts. We got some pins.
We got a lot of paraphernalia.
Let's get y'all name on this list.
So why did you guys come here today?
Honestly, I heard about it on your Instagram.
- Oh, really? On my Instagram? - Yeah. Yeah.
Oh, that's what's up. Okay, cool, cool, cool, cool.
- We love that. - And so I was like,
I gotta come. I gotta come by.
Got you. So at first you thought you were registered.
I wanted to double check because I just switched over my license
and I haven't got the actual hard copy yet,
so I wanted to make sure that I actually was registered.
In Georgia, strict voter ID requirements
mean students living away from home
often don't have the documents needed to get registered.
We have all the info here. This is the best way to do it. And this is great.
- You found out through Jabari. - Yeah, yeah.
You just registered with Jabari. That's so cool.
That's fire. We gotta take a flick, too.
- Yeah, yeah. Absolutely. - That'd be dope.
All right, we got a small and medium.
- Both: Thank you. - Jabari: Mm-hmm.
- We're all set. - Yes.
- Nice and registered? - Jabari: Yep.
- Thank you guys so much. - Of course.
- Thank you. - We got one. Six!
Her over there with the bandana. I don't think she registered.
Yeah. No, you. There you go.
Right there. Come on. Come register.
And you haven't registered to vote yet?
No, I haven't. I haven't.
But I'ma get it together. Like, I don't know.
What's the first step? What should I do?
You gotta talk to them. They'll get you right.
- They'll get me right? - Yeah, they're the experts.
Ciarra works for Campus Vote Project.
They work to remove barriers to student voting
for minority and underrepresented groups across the country.
When I was younger, I was obsessed
with the Barack Obama campaign that happened in 2008, right?
Seeing someone that looked like me
being able to hold that position of office was really important,
and I don't think before that I had understanding that that was possible,
especially in a state like Georgia
where a lot of our elected leaders didn't look like me.
Jabari:
the United States has ever seen.
Nearly 40% of voters who were 18 to 24
in the 2020 election were non-white,
and this percentage is increasing.
So have you seen young Black voters in Atlanta come out to vote?
- Ciarra: 100%. - Jabari: Yeah?
In 2020, we had the highest youth voter turnout
that we've ever had in the history of Georgia voters.
- Got you. - So that was really exciting.
And so now you're trying to keep up the momentum.
At the heart of Campus Vote Project,
it's to make sure that young people have access to the ballot box
and that youth voter turnout continues to go up every year.
Jabari:
Since the historic high turnout of 2020,
many believe the new regulations in Georgia
have made access to the ballot box harder for young people.
Along with the ID requirements, this includes restrictions
on the number of ballot drop boxes,
one of the main methods
young people use to cast their votes.
I can definitely understand why Nelson Mandela
spent his whole life fighting for voting rights.
I think a lot of the work that I do
is fueled by love as well,
because I love my community,
because I love my family,
because I love Black people.
"Justice. All power to the people." That's fire.
- Thanks. - Can we get a close up on that?
Libras' signs are the scales of justice.
They're usually known to be political leaders. They're good at mediating.
- I feel like it fits me good. - So it's lined up.
Yes.
Ndaba Mandela:
do not waste this opportunity that you've been given
that many thousands of people fought for,
to say that I vote for this particular party
because I believe they are going to address the concerns
that I have for this country.
He trying to register twice. ( laughing )
Do you got a phone here? We can scan this.
- You are registered. - I got a shirt for you, man.
- Appreciate that, man. - Hey, Gavin.
- Yo. - I need you to use this,
and I need you to get some people over here to vote.
Over here! You registered to vote yet?
- Oh, you are? - Already registered?
Jabari:
It started with my great-grandfather.
He was a Tuskegee Airman, World War II.
When he came back from the war,
he decided to get involved in this community
with voting and voter registration.
He was in a predominantly Black county in Alabama.
It's a family thing, but it's also a community thing.
I gotta keep the legacy going.
Growing up, I had a variety of heroes.
MLK, Malcolm X,
Angela Davis, Tupac Shakur,
my great-grandfather, and my father.
These are a lot of people
who have shown me the importance of strength.
Aimedra: Here's your great grandfather
and the rest of crew, Tuskegee Airmen.
In those days, people like him
getting poor Black people registered to vote
could you get killed, and some people were killed.
The KKK bombed your great-grandfather's office
because of the work he was doing
to get poor Black people
registered to vote in Lowndes County, Alabama.
And it was such a scary situation,
and it didn't stop him.
It's all you.
( music playing )
Jabari:
are a lot more fun today than they were in the '60s.
This one even comes with its own T-shirt and pin merchandise.
Nomalanga:
you actually do go out there and vote.
Because we don't want to be bystanders.
At the end of the day, this is our world, and we're living in it,
and you want to participate in the decisions.
Ty:
that we do more than Instagram about the things
that we see in the world that we wanna change.
Femi:
efforts to disenfranchise us
and if we don't exercise that right,
we are allowing ourselves to be put in positions
that leave us vulnerable to the violation of our rights.
If voting was not that important,
why is there such a concerted effort
to suppress the voting rights of so many Americans?
Jabari:
Thank you all for voting.
Myself and my fellow volunteers have registered Gen-Z voters
and kicked off countless more conversations
on why we all must use our right to vote.
You registered to vote? Are you good to vote?
If not, come on.
Yo, we got some fraternity steppers here
from Georgia State University. Give it up for them, y'all!
Give it up, give it up, give it up, give it up!
( imitating air horn )
♪ We are the brothers ♪
♪ Of Zeta U ♪
♪ We keep it clean ♪
♪ We stay GQ ♪
♪ You 'bout to learn ♪
( chanting continues )
♪ We keep it frozen ♪
Jabari:
and proud to be a part of this generation.
If these guys are anything to go by,
we are gonna to make the world a better place
just as long as we all remember to turn out and vote.
The first democratic elections of South Africa, 1994.
What a monumental moment.
"And finally your dream of having elections have all come true."
This was definitely one of his best days.