Just days before the November 3 General Election, D9 Harlem Votes®, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated® Pi Kappa Omega Chapter, and the Sterling Johnson, Jr. New York Chapter of the National Black Prosecutors Association presented ‘The Vote Should Never Lose Its Power’ at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture on October 29. The program combined interactive civic education with an intergenerational conversation on voting rights, with the New York City Commission on Racial Equity (CORE)
serving as Event Collaborator.
Linda Tigani, CORE’s Chair and Executive Director, challenged attendees to consider how voting
and proposed changes to government relate to the priorities of Black New Yorkers. “What does
your black agenda look like? What do you need the government to change and do?” she asked.
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At the center of the evening was R.E.A.C.T.S., a nonpartisan civic education framework
developed by the D9 Harlem Votes® Civic Engagement and Education Curriculum Development Team. The interactive experience challenged participants to look beyond the familiar election-season reminder to turn over their ballots and examine what they were actually being asked to approve or reject.
Introducing the framework, Erika L. Ewing, Co-Chair of D9 Harlem Votes®, questioned how
often voters take the time to understand the language of ballot proposals. Through R.E.A.C.T.S.,
attendees examined five New York City ballot proposals, identifying what each would change in
government rather than expressing support or opposition.
But the ability to vote yes or no carries a history of struggle. Understanding the ballot is only one part of exercising political power; protecting the right to cast that ballot is another. That connection became the focus of the intergenerational roundtable moderated by Nigel L. Farinha, Esq.
The panel featured the Honorable Milton A. Tingling, retired New York State Supreme Court
Justice; Charles Johnson, Esq., Civic Engagement Chair, NAACP New York State Conference;
Zsa’Queria B. Martin, Esq., Impact Litigation Attorney with Democracy Defenders Fund; and
Naila Keys, a Pace University student majoring in Writing for Diversity and Equity in Theater and
Media, with a minor in Peace and Justice Studies, and a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority,
Incorporated®, Rho Theta Chapter.
Judge Tingling, the first African American County Clerk of New York County (Manhattan) and
the first African American elected to a judgeship from New York City’s 7th Municipal Court
District, placed today’s voting-rights challenges within a longer history of racial exclusion.
Discussing the 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery except as punishment for a crime, he
traced the historical relationship between incarceration, political representation and
disenfranchisement.
“There is a connection between incarceration and voting and it is historical and it continues,”
Judge Tingling told the audience. He also described his initiative to educate formerly incarcerated
individuals about reclaiming and exercising their voting rights, emphasizing that returning to one’s
community should include opportunities for full civic participation.
Charles Johnson, Esq., examined the weakening of federal voting-rights protections, including the
preclearance requirements established under the Voting Rights Act of 1965. He contrasted the
challenges facing voters in states with fewer safeguards with New York’s John R. Lewis Voting
Rights Act, enacted in 2022, which provides additional state-level protections against
discriminatory voting practices.
Naila Keys offered a younger generation’s perspective, challenging the assumption that young
people believe their votes do not count. She described a generation increasingly aware of the
urgency of participating in elections and making its concerns heard.
The conversation returned to the complexity of ballot language when Farinha acknowledged that
even after 25 years practicing law, he found the proposals difficult to interpret. “I’ve read statutes
upon statutes,” he said. “I was having a hard time going through some of the challenging and
convoluted language.”
Zsa’Queria B. Martin, Esq., traced the New York City Charter’s origins to 1898 and discussed the
work of the 2026 Commission on Government Efficiency, a 15-member Charter Revision
Commission appointed by Mayor Zohran Mamdani that developed five ballot proposals following
10 public hearings. Directing attendees to the city’s website to review those hearings, she
emphasized the importance of community participation.
Together, R.E.A.C.T.S. and the intergenerational discussion brought the evening’s central message
into focus: the power of the vote depends not only on protecting access to the ballot, but also on
understanding the decisions it places before voters.
At the Schomburg Center, an institution dedicated to preserving Black history and culture, “The
Vote Should Never Lose Its Power” connected that history to the continuing work of civic
education, community participation, and the protection of voting rights. A recording of the program is available at: https://youtu.be/_CNlBj1A47g
