Atlanta community organizer weighs in on 2024 election season

ATLANTA — Every vote represents a person – and a person can help decide an election.

Campaigns are already underway to try to claim the White House, an effort that includes getting to the bottom of what the Georgia electorate really wants.

Meet a voter and what motivates them this election season.

A young leader involved in local politics, Devin Barrington-Ward is known as an outspoken community organizer, most often seen at a Fulton County Commissioner’s meeting or speaking during public comments at meetings of the Atlanta City Council.

Barrington-Ward is also the CEO of the Black Futurist Group, a social justice innovation company that uses public policy, political education, and community organizing to “reimagine Black futures” and teach others to do it as well.

He said he got his start in the world of political activism because it was in his blood.

“It’s actually something that I consider part of my family lineage,” he said. “It’s a legacy, if you like.”

Barrington-Ward said his great-great-great-grandfather, Paul Bogle, laid the foundation.

With statues erected in his honor, Bogle is considered a national hero in Jamaica. He led the Morant Bay Rebellion against the British in 1865 and also fought for Jamaicans’ voting rights and an end to legal and economic discrimination against African Jamaicans.

Barrington-Ward said he is just following in the footsteps of his ancestors.

Making waves again by attending local municipal meetings following water main breaks in Atlanta, Barrington-Ward said he was taking the podium to help those with whom he shares his livelihood.

He explained that small changes in local issues can have a huge impact and that ultimately he cares about “what’s best for my neighbors.”

“War is not good for anyone,” he said.

The political activist described events in Palestine as genocide, adding that global issues tend to impact local voters.

“Right now, we’re not really hearing what people want to hear from this administration, which would be a path to ending this conflict and achieving a permanent ceasefire so that we can have peace in the Middle East and peace throughout the world, which means here in the city of Atlanta as well,” he said.

Asked if he could be convinced to use his vote to support a presidential candidate, he ultimately said he was worried this election season.

“This worry manifests itself in the feeling that I am between the hardest rock and the hardest place,” he said.

Although he says supporting one candidate seems impossible, he hopes the country’s youngest voters can create change.

“When I saw young people take to the streets like they did in 2020, like they did this year on college campuses across the country, it lets me know that the power is still there,” did he declare.

As long as young people feel there is a future to fight for, he said, “we will have a future.”

Watch our Voice of the Voter segment during Georgia Vote Sundays at 11 a.m. on WXIA.