“[P]rogressive people of color and progressive whites comprise the mathematical majority of eligible voters in America: a New American Majority. Our newfound power elected and re-elected a Black president, but there is so much more that is possible, and so much more that is necessary. Texas, for example, seen as the reddest of red states, has 4 million eligible,non-voting, people of color. Nationally, 26 million eligible people of color did not vote in 2012. And nearly 8 million more eligible people of color have been added to that number over the past 4 years.”

That’s part of a manifesto by Steve Phillips, co-founder of Democracy in Color, an advocacy group hoping to get progressive activists integrally involved in the electoral process. Phillips’ argument echoes the one made by civil rights organizer Bayard Rustin 50 years ago, in his essay, “From Protest to Politics:”

“The future of the Negro struggle depends on whether the contradictions of this society can be resolved by a coalition of progressive forces which becomes the effective political majority in the United States. I speak of the coalition which staged the March on Washington, passed the Civil Rights Act, and laid the basis for the Johnson landslide—Negroes, trade unionists, liberals, and religious groups.”

To help mobilize activists,  Democracy in Color sponsored two sessions at the Democratic Convention. Video of both sessions follow.

“Women of Color, Uniting the Party, Leading the Country.”

And later in the day, Inclusv, a firm specializing in helping political campaigns and organizations find candidates of color, co-sponsored a panel that included Bernard Coleman III, Chief Diversity and Human Resources Officer at Hillary for America.

LIVE on #Periscope: Democracy in Color panel at DNC https://t.co/qRtAFrR4BU

— Kim Pearson (@professorkim) July 25, 2016

Whatever the outcome of the current election cycle, these organizers are dedicated to ensuring that there is a cadre of politically savvy progressives in a position to wield power in the long term.

DNC 2016 Diary: Progressives ponder paths to political influence by Kim Pearson is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.