Jabari Banks Gets Out The Vote! _ The Mandela Project

Youtube originals , y'all , you know , we came out here .

I need you all to come .

I'm Jabari Banks , actor , artist and musician , best known for bringing the Fresh Prince of back to life .

Today , I've been invited to take part in Mandela Day .

Nelson Mandela is a global icon .

He spent his entire life fighting for freedom , equality and justice and brought an end to apartheid in South Africa every year on Nelson Mandela's birthday , July 18th , people in South Africa partake in an active service for their community .

Inspired by legacy .

My grandfather was the architect behind Mandela Day , but it's really about getting involved , getting dirty , put on your gum boots , put on some gloves and going out there this year myself and five other celebrities will be taking Mandela Day Global by joining forces with the Nelson Mandela Foundation and undertaking our own acts of service in communities across the world .

Bold titles appear the Mandela Project , Nelson Mandela in 1961 or inquire want the franchise on the basis of one man one vote .

They want political independence in Mandela being denied the right to vote goes against one's human rights , not only in South Africa .

But it has happened even in America when Nelson Mandela was born in 1918 , almost all black South Africans did not have the right to vote .

As a young man , he took on this fight for equality and sacrificed 27 years of his life to prison .

As a result in 1994 he finally won .

So it is our responsibility to young people to get out there and vote .

My grandfather says , let your choices reflect your hopes and not your fears .

Young Jack in the streets going to take over with Shanika right here and of course young shot .

So this morning we have a bright young star , Jabari Bates .

Good morning , sir .

Good morning .

Nice to speak with you all .

How are , you know , very nice to have you with you seeing your , your star just really explode in the past year .

Yeah , it's been a wild ride so far and I love it .

I love it .

We have to talk about the huge initiative that you are here to talk about voting in Atlanta .

Yes , I am here for the voter registration drive at Rose Circle Park from four PM to eight PM .

Be there or be square .

It's going down , it's going down streets and buildings in Atlanta .

Jabari is in a car on the freeway .

I've come to Atlanta , Georgia ahead of midterm elections to volunteer at a voter registration drive .

It's important to help activate young people to vote because we are the future and have to change the idea that in our community voting doesn't really matter .

In 2021 the outcome of Georgia's Senate elections literally changed who made the laws of this country ?

The reason for this change was the high turnout of my fellow Gen Z African Americans .

Many voting for the very first time with more elections later this year .

I'm here to remind them that every vote still matters .

It's important for me to use my profile in a positive way because I wanna be able to blaze a path in the same way that my heroes have done for me .

I feel like our generation is the generation for change .

And so if I can help in that way , in any way possible , I definitely will .

I actually cast my first vote in 2020 .

My mom made me come out and vote and that was , that was super dope to see a lot of young people actually voting and it really opened my eyes to the power that I had in sharing my voice .

Another reason I'm keen to get to the park is to meet Sierra and Gavin two people who do a lot more than just turn up to vote .

They are two of the volunteer activists at today's Drive .

Yo , what's going on ?

Y'all ?

Nice to meet you , Gavin .

What's going on , man ?

My name is Gavin Kelly .

I just turned 19 .

I'm a honors computer information systems .

Major at Howard University .

Just finished my freshman year and voting rights is something that I truly do believe in passionately taking part in my first voting drive .

I can get more people to cast their vote and I can also really engage in my community .

And that's something I take a lot of pride in .

My name is Sierra Malone .

I'm 23 years old and I am a voting rights organizer in Atlanta , Georgia .

When I graduated , I cared a lot about making sure that I was helping minority communities and especially being involved in politics and ensuring that we had elected leaders that were creating change that we want to see in those communities to bar with his volunteers .

OK .

Don't , don't , I'm here to help .

Maybe I can um set up some tents , cut off , some , hold on before we do it .

Hands in hands in right here , Mandela on three , right ?

123 .

You got , yo , yo , OK , there we go .

We're in business now .

OK .

Jabari plays with his megaphone .

No , none of that .

Oh OK .

The team set up stalls .

Yeah , we are all here today with the voter registration organization called head count who have registered more than one million young voters since 2004 .

Head count is a nonprofit .

We do voter registration drives just like this , but we specifically focus on concerts and festivals .

So we're really trying to bridge the gap of young people who are going to concerts and festivals and then the political aspect of what the younger generation is doing right now .

That's incredible .

You know , I do music too , so never have my concert .

Y'all gotta come through .

You know what I mean ?

Like often times like the best spokesperson is somebody that's actually recognizable because when we're talking about voting and stuff , it can be very informational and we have like somebody that can communicate and really express what we're trying to do , man .

It's so important .

So that's what I'm here for .

Truly , we appreciate , we appreciate the love .

Thank you , man .

I appreciate you guys .

Come on , I can't be doing all the work .

All right guys , I need , I need some teamwork here .

OK .

Jailer Black history educator .

It's so important for young people of color across the world to have the right to vote primarily because unfortunately , black communities tend to be marginalized and made invisible even to this day .

And so for young people to come forward and to use their vote in order to influence politics in their country is a tool of self determination , which was one of the principles that Nelson Mandela taught .

We have noticed that when you are apathetic , when you don't vote , when you decide , ah , nothing is gonna change anyway .

What happens is the very same things that make it very difficult for your life to take form in the way it's supposed to , those things only grow those things only increase wisdom .

Cole when young people exercise the right to vote , they begin to opt into a system where they are able to see their , their world transform .

Right ?

Often time it is so slow , but advocacy and freedom is a constant journey .

We gotta keep banging at that door .

You registered to vote , you register you , right ?

Ok .

Ok .

Just make sure you got some forms right here .

We're gonna get you .

All right , we got some we got some dope shirts as my fellow volunteers know a vote to drive on its own doesn't always attract the crowds but add some music and you attract attention .

Atlanta Drama Academy musicians display around the stalls .

Jabari talks to the gathered crowd of adults and Children badges with good to vote printed on them are displayed on the stalls together with voter registration information .

Alright y'all you know we came out here , I need you all to come back to see the vote .

We got some , we got some pins .

We got a lot of paraphernalia .

Let's get your name on this list .

Two young women approach a stall .

So why did you guys come here today ?

Uh Honestly I heard about it on your Instagram .

Oh really ?

Mine , we love that .

So I was like I gotta , I gotta come back I got you .

So at first you thought you were registered ?

I wanted to double check because I just switched over my license and I haven't got the actual hard copy yet .

So I wanted to make sure that I actually was registered in Georgia .

Strict voter id requirements mean students living away from home often don't have the documents needed to get registered .

We have all the info here .

This is the best way to do it and it's great you found out through Jabari .

He's like you just registered with Java .

Like that's so far .

Yeah , we got a small and a medium .

Thank you .

Thank you .

Thank you .

Her over there with the band .

I don't think she budgeted .

Yeah .

No .

There you go .

Right there .

Come on .

Come on , come and you register to vote yet .

No , I , I haven't but I'm gonna get it together .

Um Like , I , I don't know , like , what's the first step ?

What should I do ?

Like you gotta talk to them .

They'll , they'll get you right .

They'll get you .

Right .

Yeah , they're the experts .

Sierra works for campus vote project .

They work to remove barriers to student voting for minority and underrepresented groups across the country .

When I was younger .

I was obsessed with the Barack Obama campaign that happened in 2008 , right ?

Seeing someone that looked like me being able to hold that position in office was really important .

And I don't think before that I had an understanding that that was possible , especially in a state like Georgia where a lot of our elected leaders didn't look like me .

Gen Z is hands down the most diverse pool of voters .

The United States has ever seen nearly 40% of voters who were 18 to 24 in the 2020 election were non white and this percentage is increasing .

So , have you seen like young black voters in Atlanta come out to vote ?

Uh 100% in 2020 ?

We have the highest youth voter turnout that we've ever had in the history of like Georgia voters .

And so that was really exciting .

And so now you're trying to , to keep up the momentum at the heart of campus project is to make sure that young people have access to the ballot box and that youth voter turnout continues to go up every year .

It's a big challenge since the historic high turnout of 2020 .

Many believe the new regulations in Georgia have made access to the ballot box harder for young people along with the ID requirements .

This includes restrictions on the number of ballot drop boxes .

One of the main methods young people use to cast their votes .

I can definitely understand why Nelson Mandela spent his whole life fighting for voting rights .

I think that a lot of the work that I do is fueled by love as well because I love my community because I love my family because I love black people , justice , all power to the people that's fired .

Can you get a close up one out ?

Like signs of scales of justice ?

They're usually like known to be like political leaders like they're good at mediating .

I feel like it fits me good .

So it's all lined up Indaba Mandela .

It's important that young people do not waste this opportunity that you have been given that many thousands of people fought for , to say that I vote for this particular party because I believe they are going to address the concerns that I have for this country .

Uh You got a phone here , we can stand this .

You are registered , serve you in .

No , I need you to use this and I need you to get some people over here to vote over here .

You register to vote yet you are registered .

Why are you so passionate about voter registration ?

I saw with my great grandfather , he was a Tuskegee airman , World War Two .

When he came back from the war , he decided to get involved in this community .

They were voting and voter registration .

He was in a predominantly black county in Alabama .

I think it's a family thing but it's also a community thing .

I gotta keep a growing up .

I had a variety of heroes and L K Malcolm X Angela Davis , Tupac Shakur , my great grandfather and my father .

These are a lot of people who has show me the importance of strength .

Here's your great grandfather and the rest of his crew Tuskegee airman in those days , people like him getting poor black people registered to vote .

Could get you killed and some people were killed .

The K K K bombed your great grandfather's office because of the work he was doing to get poor black people registered to vote in Lowndes County Alabama .

And it was such a scary situation and it didn't stop him .

An aerial view of Gavin's family home on a basketball court .

Jabari plays with a teenage boy who scores Jabari hands out T shirts from his thankfully , voter registration drives are a lot more fun today than they were in the sixties .

This one even comes with its own T shirt and pin merchandise .

No longer shows actor and TV personality .

The most important thing is that you actually do go out there and vote , you know , because we don't want to be bystanders , you know , at the end of the day , this is our world and we're living in it and you want to participate in the decisions and it is imperative that we do more than tweet that we do more than Instagram about the things that we see in the world that we want to change .

Nylander if we don't fight against efforts to disenfranchise us .

And if we don't exercise that right , we are allowing ourselves to be put in positions that leave us vulnerable to the violation of our rights .

If voting was not that important , why is there such a concerted effort to suppress the voting rights of so many Americans today has been a great success .

Thank you all for myself and my fellow volunteers have registered Gen Z voters and kicked off countless more conversations on why we all must use our right to vote to vote .

If not , we got some fraternity stuff here from Georgia State University .

The steppers perform for the crowd .

You please , you , you got to that like an old , we keep your balls down .

I'm feeling really positive about the future and proud to be a part of this generation .

If these guys are anything to go by , we are going to make the world a better place .

Just as long as we all remember to turn out and vote the first democratic elections of South Africa 1994 .

What a monumental moment and finally your dream of having elections for come true .

This was definitely one of his best days in holds a photo of Nelson Mandela , a production of youtube originals .