African Organizers Push for Participation

The local democratic primaries were not on the agenda at last night’s meeting of African Communities Together (ACT), an immigrant advocacy group headquartered in central Harlem. After all, of the fifty or so people — mostly West African immigrants — filling the classroom at the Dempsey Community Center, only a handful could legally vote. But while the repeal of DACA and the deadly mudslide in Sierra Leon were foremost in the minds of many attendees, Amaha Kassa, ACT’s Executive Director, took time to emphasize the importance of voter participation.

“To those of you who are citizens, a lot of people who are not citizens are relying on you to vote,” he said, adding they had the ability to put their communities’ concerns on the government’s agenda.

Another attendee, from the Union of Sierra Leonian Organizations, stood up to reemphasize the point.

“After the mudslide, not one member of of our city government made a statement or reached out to us,” he said. “Not one. We have have to ask ourselves why this is.“