Activist Camille Bennett never backs down from a fight, despite her life being in danger. She’s endured racist and violent threats in rural Alabama, a part of a life she’s known since moving there as a teenager. She’s in Florence, her father’s hometown in the northwest part of the state known as The Shoals. In Florence, Black people account for only 18% of the 40,000 people that live there, making it no less important for Black voters to mobilize for Election Day.

The racial hostility she experienced came to a head in 2017, a year after former President Donald Trump won the presidential election. In 2016 and 2020, about 71% of votes went to Trump in Lauderdale County, according to Politico.

Black Voters Mobilize Against Rising Racism

At the town’s first LGBTQ pride rally, Bennett, the only Black speaker, addressed a majority white crowd of 400 attendees. Dressed in white hoods and robes, members of the Ku Klux Klan harassed and heckled her. They mistook the event for a protest to take down Confederate monuments. In a separate incident in 2020, Bennett says a white motorcyclist at a racial justice march attempted to run her over as she held two small boys.

“They tried to kill me,” she told Capital B. “I had two white children with me, and I blocked them with my body. I looked [the motorcyclist] into his eyes, and he couldn’t do it. I was just lucky, I guess.”

Bennett says the racism and the attacks weren’t uncommon, but Trump’s rhetoric normalized the hate she received and the lack of accountability, underscoring the need for Black voters to mobilize. No one has ever been charged or arrested for harassing her. Through her nonprofit Project Say Something, Bennett urged city officials to remove a Confederate monument in front of the local courthouse in Florence. Throughout Trump’s presidency, as support grew across the country to topple and rename Confederate monuments, the former president continued to defend the racist remnants of the past.

Organizers like Bennett say they can’t afford another Trump win. Several people told Capital B that they believe his presidency increased the threat of white terrorism, while others say the overt hate stems from the backlash to President Barack Obama’s wins in 2008 and 2012. Counties where Trump won by larger margins or hosted campaign rallies in 2016 experienced spikes in hate crimes, according to a Brookings Institution analysis.

Read the full article about Black voters mobilizing for Election Day by Aallyah Wright at Capital B News.