New Georgia, New Friendships: S4RSJ Works Together To Flip Senate

The #get-out-the-vote channel was absolutely blowing up. This past Wednesday, the Students For Racial And Social Justice had just launched their merchandise campaign to fund The New Georgia Project and jumped into the group Discord channel to celebrate their hard work.

The New Georgia Project is a non-partisan organization dedicated to registering Black voters and voters of color, as well as mobilizing them to stand their ground against the decades of voter oppression in Georgia. The Students for Racial and Social Justice (S4RSJ) were drawn to the New Georgia Project in a movement to support Democratic senate candidates Jon Ossof and and Raphael Warnock, who, if elected, will flip the senate to a Democratic majority on the government level.

Project spearhead Charlotte Roberts, a senior, harnessed post-election energy to generate the fundraiser’s momentum. After the S4RSJ group met with students from Sabis International Charter School in Springfield to learn about a successful bake-sale they did to fund Black Lives Matter, Roberts decided that the Georgia run-off elections required similar work.

“It’s literally the axis that the nation is resting on right now,” writes Roberts on the elections in Georgia. “I felt like I wanted to participate in some small way… so the students from S4RSJ made it happen.”

Initially, the fundraiser--unanimously determined to commission student art to put on t-shirts, mugs, and tote bags-- was formed to directly support the Ossoff and Warnock campaigns themselves. The group felt that, in the words of senior Lenora Dickson, (who warned she was about to say something political,) “being able to possibly flip the senate would be a huge step in repairing some of the damage in the Trump administration.”

It was for the same reason Dickson was careful around political statements that the group decided to switch their funding to a non-partisan organization. They needed the help of the school to spread the word of the campaign, and in order for that to happen, the fundraiser would need to be beyond the realm of politics. This turn led to greater things for the campaign: to be able to support oppressed voters as directly as they could given, as Dickson pointed out, it isn’t safe to be there on ground zero registering voters ourselves.

Additionally, Roberts makes the point that “Georgia wouldn’t even be a battleground state without organizations like The New Georgia Project that have been working really closely with communities of color and low income communities, [they] aren’t tokenizing the Black Lives Matter movement or doing superficial performative activism, but actually building empowerment.

Freshmen Liam Black was drawn to the project out of frustration. Even after Biden’s wwin, he desired more influence as a young person on the state of the Senate under the Biden Administration.

“I was frustrated with my lack of say in the country’s future. I feel that this election will be really significant for the future of the United States, and the thought that I had no control over its outcome really bothered me. I knew right away that {the fundraiser] was something I wanted to be a part of.”

By the end of the campaign, Black acted as the torch-bearer for community outreach and social media communications.

While the student activists endured many long meetings at the tailend of even longer school days, they championed through the setbacks, conflicts, and motivational lulls that come with any fundraiser. Overall, the group learned the mechanics of working with students of all ages and areas of expertise.

“I think it’s really cool having people from different grades all working together on this project. It’s important to get diverse perspectives on the same topic,” wrote Freshman Kya Josephs, who stuck around after one S4RSJ to learn about the campaign. They have since taken up promotion of the campaign on social media and are adding immensely to group chat hype.

Before this project, Black had never worked with, let alone really talked with anyone outside of his division. “I feel like I’ve gotten a lot out of this experience,” he writes with enthusiasm that shines through in his email. “I’m super impressed with how smoothly we were all able to work together on this, and I think the result is a perfect reflection of all our grades’ collaborative efforts.”

Sophomore Ella Dubin, the behind-the-scenes magician of the fundraiser, attests to the fact that Four Rivers really has never seen anything like this before. She writes,

“I feel like Four Rivers is always boasting about how much inter-grade collaboration and student leadership we have, but this project is one of the first times I’ve truly seen the full power of both of those things.”

What resulted was a successful gathering of artwork by Carlie Mackenzie Kempf, (12th) Molly Sharry, (10th) and Maddy Keating, (12th), inspired by Georgia peaches and the overall power of voting. With the help of Mackenzie Kempf, who is well versed in t-shirt fundraisers, the art is being sold on t-shirts, sweatshirts, mugs, and tote bags in an assortment of colors.

It is clear that this fundraiser has not only succeeded in its change-making goals, but it simultaneously upholds the values upon which Four Rivers prides itself: independent student collaboration, unstoppable in their path to reach their goals.

The fundraiser’s first batch of merchandise will close on December 18th. Visit this document to find links to each product. The S4RSJ group will be exceedingly overjoyed.