VOTING RIGHTS
Committee Mission
To bring to light the role racial discrimination has played in voting rights and political power in order to create equitable electoral access and representation that will dismantle systemic racism.
Committee Leadership
Samantha Turner, Co-Chair
Samantha Turner chairs the Protect Our Stolen Treasures NC organization, a group that supports victims of police violence. She serves as Co-Chair of the North Carolina Poor People’s Campaign Southern Piedmont Circle and is an influential member of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, founding its first European Decent Allies Caucus as well as a board member of the Southern Anti-Racism Network. She is also Senior Chair of the Reimagining America Project's Voting Rights Committee. Her work on the VRC has been powerful and prolific thanks to the great teamwork by the dedicated people on the committee. As an activist leader, she is dedicated to the work of eliminating immoral barriers to equity and justice. Samantha’s work in Charlotte is expansive. She works with local education leaders to promote the community school model and is on the CMS school improvement team working to eliminate achievement gaps and the school to prison pipeline. She also serves on the RAP education committee. Ms. Turner works with health care leaders on Medicare expansion efforts and was the first nonprofit leader to team up with the Mecklenburg County Health Department in order to bring a Covid-19 vaccination clinic to our most impacted and undeserved neighbors. A native New Yorker, Samantha moved to Charlotte with her husband and two children in 2018, bringing her tireless drive for justice and peace to the Queen City.
Tayler Mickens, Co-Chair
tayler@newnorthcarolinaproject.org
Tayler Mickens earned a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and African American & African Diaspora studies from The University of North Carolina at Greensboro. She began her organizing career as a Corps member with NC Cohort for Organizing Corps 2020. Following completion of the program, she went on to work as a Field Organizer for the North Carolina Coordinated Campaign in the 2020 election. Her passion for capacity building and her love of helping marginalized communities is what led her to community organizing. Tayler is currently the Regional Organizer for The New North Carolina Project.