JEFFERSON COUNTY, Texas — With early voting beginning next week, Southeast Texas organizations are working hard to get black voters to the polling booth.
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and Operation One Vote makes it their mission to guide voters through the process.
After the Emancipation Proclamation freed enslaved people, a lot of southern states used black codes that restricted black people from voting.
Now the struggle is that people don't think their vote counts.
"Its an obligation, it's a commitment, and it's a well fought fight that they should not take for granted," said Bobbie Patterson. She was the first black women to be elected to Beaumont city council in 1995.
She says she won by one singular vote and formed the nonprofit Operation One Vote as a result.
"People will say 'well my one vote is not gonna make a difference'. Well yes it did. And it did in my first election and it does in everyone's election," she said.
Operation One Vote prioritizes educating black people on their fundamental right to vote to change this perception. That effort is already underway.
"Forums, to have them to meet the candidates. And then we will have a debate a Q&A session where they can pose questions to those candidates," Patterson said.
In January the Beaumont NAACP participated in the Operation One Vote forum, too.
"We all work hand in hand particularly because we're all trying to accomplish the same mission. Which is to get out to vote. Very similar to when you had all those organizations in the 60s that were formed during the Civil Rights Movement," said NAACP Beaumont President Shedrick D.Evans.
Patterson is also the founder of 100 Plus Black Women. From now and until Super Tuesday they will be in churches all around Southeast Texas guiding people through the voting process.
"With sororities, fraternities, other social and civic organizations, the Baptist Minister Union," Patterson said.
Younger voters are where the NAACP wants to send a clear message that "your vote counts".
"Watch the Emmett Till movie and autobiography of Mikey Edwards. That'll let them know how important voting rights were to us. How it woke up our community and the nation across the country," Evans said.
Operation One Vote will hold a forum in the fall to help educate voters on our presidential candidates.