ATLANTA GEORGIA: Canvassing for Senator Reverend Raphael Warnock

In late November a local friend, Debi Ferrer, and I learned of an opportunity to join Indivisible volunteers from around the country in Georgia to help get out the vote for Reverend Raphael Warnock in the runoff election. We decided Sunday and flew out 2 days later on the Tuesday before the December 6th election which gave us a week of getting turf packets from the organizers and heading out to knock on doors, rain or shine. Our neighborhoods were varied and mainly in Cobb and Fulton counties in the Atlanta area. It was an incredible experience to be part of a team which, combined with other organizations, knocked on more than 4.5 million doors ahead of the election.

This post contains a few photos contributed by friends and lots of links to the places and events we experienced and to important moments in the American Civil Rights movement in case you'd like to learn more.

There were at least 6 of us with ties to Oregon.

Every day the group of canvassers grew. We met in the mornings in a meeting room at our hotel to receive instructions and turf packets and to pick up snacks since we were generally canvassing through mid afternoon.

Here are the 2 sides of the literature we shared.

When we returned from canvassing we'd update the organizers and spend the rest of the afternoon resting or exploring.

Armed with literature and information, we entered our turf list numbers into the MiniVan app on our phones and knocked on the specific houses listed, thought to be left-leaning voters whose voting histories indicated they might not vote without encouragement. If no one was home (or they didn't answer) we left the lit card which included information about Raphael Warnock and voting resources including where to report problems, find local polling places, or request a ride to the polls. We were able to talk to someone in 15% to 20% of the stops, sometimes dispelling rumors and giving voter information they needed (and hopefully sufficient encouragement) to get them to the polls to make their voices heard. Here are photos from a few of our neighborhoods.

Saturday and Monday it rained. Hard. Canvassing hour after hour in a downpour is exhausting, even with good gear and good company.

T and Billie with custom rain attire.

Desirae, wisely napping while we drove to the next neighborhood - note the Fetterman hat.

We ate breakfast at the hotel, lunch on the go, and had 4 shared meals during the week that our organizers provided for us - Italian, tacos, pizza, and soul food. One night there was a Georgia music trivia contest (Debi and I guessed our way to 1st and 2nd place!) and another night we built gingerbread houses (the house Debi and I built placed 2nd and Desirae added a door knob as a finishing touch). 

We were there for the canvassing but were also able to enjoy campaign- and civil rights-related activities, a free time priority. The day after we arrived we attended a Raphael Warnock/Barack Obama rally. AMAZING! Here's a link to some of the speeches.

Our Uber driver, Randolph, dropped us off a few blocks away and then came back and waited for us afterwards. He promised to vote the next day and sent this selfie with his "I secured my vote" sticker. We had 3 additional Uber drivers during our week, all avid voters (we asked). 

The Martin Luther King National Historical Park is a wonderful complex and an emotional experience.

The Civil Rights Walk of Fame

The Visitor Center - this is the wagon that carried Dr. King's coffin in the funeral procession and a huge panoramic photo of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom attended by a quarter of a million Americans.

Near the tomb where Dr. King and Coretta Scott King were laid to rest and the eternal flame were these amazing principles of his work.

The building at the back of the photo above is The King Center for Nonviolent Social Change which featured displays about the life and death of Dr. King and his family as well as Mohandas Ghandi and a wonderful book store.

King's posthumous grammy for his speech, "Why I Oppose the War in Viet Nam". You should listen to it.

Presidential Medal of Freedom, also posthumous.

Nobel Peace Prize

His belongings from the last fateful trip to Memphis. I was really touched by this display which included folders with his speeches and books he had authored that he referenced when speaking.

A detail of one of Coretta Scott King's dresses.

In our effort to see inside the Historical Ebenezer Baptist Church where Dr. King, his father, and his grandfather were pastors, we met Robert who couldn't help us get in (he works for the church, not the National Park system that oversees it) but invited us to the Morehouse and Spelman Colleges' 96th annual Christmas Carol Concert. With Robert, left to right, our driver Desirae from Pennsylvania, Billie from Connecticut, me, and my local friend and fellow Indivisible group member, Debi.

The 2nd time we passed the church our friends convinced some rangers who were just locking it up to let us in. They said we could look for "3 minutes, not 5 minutes" and then pointed out things of interest for more than 20 minutes.

We were able to tour Dr. King's birthplace by signing up ahead; the tour started in the book store next door (no photos allowed inside the home). 

A row of houses across the street, owned by the National Park Service but lived in by renters.

Dr's King's family's home on the left, store on the right.

We grabbed a quick drive-through dinner and headed to the Martin Luther King, Jr. International Chapel for the concert, a wonderful experience with a happy welcome - Robert was one of the ushers.

The chapel features hundreds of portraits; we posed with the one of our inspiration.

Debi and I and fellow Oregonian Michael enjoyed one nice restaurant meal during our week in Atlanta. We chose South City Kitchen (Buckhead) for soul food: she-crab soup, collard greens, fried green tomatoes, biscuits, cornmeal muffins, 

and shrimp with grits.

3 lunches - an Ethiopian food cart 

Chicken and fixin's at Bo Jangle's (frankly, not a fan of the chicken but the fries were great).

and the Slutty Vegan which was a cultural experience.

Sunday morning many of us headed to church at the new Ebenezer Baptist Church which was built in 1999 and seats 1600. We enjoyed the wonderful music, fabulous hats, famous faces, and ESPECIALLY, Reverend Warnock's amazing sermon. Here's a link to the service if you're interested.

Desirae greeting Representative Pramila Jayapal, head of the House's Progressive Caucus.

Cool story. After the service we were able to meet Reverend Warnock and Billie, Desirae, and I posed for a photo with him. Desirae handed her phone to a bystander who took the photo which we discovered later didn't include me; apparently my white face just didn't look like it belonged in the photo. 

T took this one from a distance, glad to have it. I shared a fist bump with Reverend Warnock and said, "Onward and upward!" and he said, "Onward and upward!", a happy memory. 

Our friend Robert was working in the church book store!

Debi and I invited our new friend Robert to join us at The National Civil and Human Rights Center. 

One of my favorite sayings was featured on the massive fountain on the other side of the building; the next line is, "Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has". 

One floor featured the US Civil Rights movement including a stunning simulation of the soda fountain sit-ins and a moving display of photos, videos, and mug shots of Freedom Riders including a 21-year-old John Lewis (above the tire of the bus in the top photo and 2nd from right in the bottom row of the next photo), and fascinating details, photos, and videos of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. 

Another floor featured global human rights; these portraits appeared to be photos but were paintings. On the ground floor were amazing documents including original writings by Martin Luther King, Jr. and an active polling station which tied it all together. 

A friend of our son Isaac's and a hero to me who died earlier this year.

Election watch party! We zoomed with Indivisible co-founder Ezra Levin and watched as our man Raphael Warnock won another 6 years in the Senate.

And then we returned to our own beautiful state, more inspired than ever to support our Democracy.