Facing a Significant Undercount, Alabama Leaders to Come Together to Raise Awareness About the 2020 Census Before the Deadline

PRESS ADVISORY
FOR PLANNING PURPOSES
Date: September 9, 2020
 
MEDIA CONTACTS
Rebecca DeHart, 404-376-3495, Rebecca@FairCount.org
Ryan Berni, 504-417-1933, Ryan@unumfund.org

 

(NEW ORLEANS, LA) – On Wednesday, September 9, Stacey Abrams’ Fair Count and Mitch Landrieu’s E Pluribus Unum are making a virtual ‘bus stop’ in Alabama as part of their joint initiative, Census in the South: Road to Recovery.  The streaming panel discussion, “Our History is in the Census, Our Future is in Our Hands,” will feature political, faith, and community leaders from across Alabama discussing what is at stake if the 2020 Census fails to count communities accurately.

This virtual bus tour is traveling across the South in an effort to raise awareness about the 2020 Census and how ensuring a fair and accurate count is the first, critical step in recovering from the global pandemic.

Who:  Members of the press and the general public are invited.

What: “Our History is in the Census, and Our Future is in Our Hands,” is a virtual event that will premier online.

Featured speakers include Jay Williams from the Alabama Count Collaborative, Pastor Valtoria Jackson of Interfaith Montgomery, Mayor Timothy Ragland of Talladega, and more. The event is a “stop” during the 3-week virtual bus tour, Census In the South: Road to Recovery.

When: Wednesday, September 9 at 8 pm ET/7 pm CT.

Where: Register HERE to RSVP and to receive email reminders about the event and instructions for how to log-on.

Why: The shortening of the already challenged 2020 Census, in tandem with the COVID-19 global pandemic, has placed our very democracy in a precarious state. As of September 8,  the national response rate is 88.2%, but Alabama trails at 79.0%. The 2020 Census will direct more than $1.5 trillion through more than 300 programs for the next decade and divvy up political power through reapportionment and redistricting.

For more information on Census in the South: Road to Recovery, visit: www.censusinthesouth.org.

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Responding to the census is safe, secure, and available in multiple languages. If you have not yet completed the 2020 Census, please visit www.My2020Census.gov to complete it online. If interested in completing the Census by phone, call 1-844-330-8282.

About Fair Count

Founded by Stacey Abrams in 2019, Fair Count is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to partnering with hard-to-count communities to achieve a fair and accurate count of all people in Georgia and the nation in the 2020 Census and to strengthening the pathways to greater civic participation. For more information, please visit www.FairCount.org.

About E Pluribus Unum

E Pluribus Unum is an initiative created to fulfill America’s promise of justice and opportunity for all by breaking down the barriers that divide us by race and class. In its first year, the E Pluribus Unum team traveled extensively across the American South to uncover and confront the challenges we face, to learn from people about what separates us and what can bring us together, and to find bold and effective solutions to tackle the modern legacy of Jim Crow so that an inclusive new South may be born. Incubated at Emerson Collective and led by former New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu, the E Pluribus Unum team is building a series of programs and initiatives to cultivate courageous leaders who are committed to realizing an inclusive vision for a new South, champion transformative policies to reverse the enduring harms of America’s Jim Crow era past for those who continue to experience them today and change narratives that perpetuate systemic and interpersonal racism in order to shift people’s attitudes and behaviors.