Alfre Woodard, Sunny Hostin & More Stars Join Anti-Voter Suppression Campaign with Striking 'And Still I Vote' Portraits

As the 2020 presidential race continues via the first season, Emmy Award-winning actress Alfre Woodard, The View‘s Sunny Hostin, Orange Is the New Black‘s Danielle Brooks and other stars are talking out about voter suppression.

The marketing campaign is led by The Leadership Convention on Civil and Human Rights in an effort to push back towards voter suppression efforts in traditionally disenfranchised communities throughout the nation. Woodard, Hostin and Brooks joined Debbie Allen, Michael Ealy and Michael Okay. Williams, among others, in a collection of portraits concerning the importance of voting.

Based on a news launch, the national call-to-action will “highlight techniques some authorities officials use to erect limitations to the voting booth.”

The marketing campaign launched this week ahead of the crucial “Super Tuesday” vote this week and main as much as the 55th anniversary of “Bloody Sunday” in Selma, Alabama, on Saturday.

Woodard informed PEOPLE that voting limitations are a “crisis.”

“Whether you are a movie star, public determine, or a hard-working American, being an engaged citizen is all of our duties,” Woodard tells PEOPLE. “If we need to guarantee our freedoms, we must do the work. Freedom ain’t free. It needs to be fought for and guarded day-after-day.”

Woodard’s familial ties to voting rights date again to the post-Civil Struggle era, when she tells PEOPLE her great-grandfather Alec was “registered to vote quickly after breaking the chains of enslavement.”

“I do not yield from individuals who stand idly on the sidelines and watch progress slip away,” Woodard says. “My mother and father raised an engaged citizen — a citizen who feels responsible not only for her circle of relatives however all the families round her. So, in fact, I'm going to work day-after-day making an attempt to do whatever I can to make this country better and immediately I am proud to help the ‘And Still I Vote’ marketing campaign.”

RELATED: Barack Obama Demands Pro-Trump Group’s Joe Biden Attack Ad Be Pulled for Misusing His Voice

The marketing campaign’s portraits have been shot by Andre D. Wagner and look to assist unfold consciousness and assist battle towards voter suppression — an intimidation or misinformation tactic or different sort of impediment put in place to mitigate turnout in a given group, typically those for individuals of colour.

“They try to silence me … they try to erase me,” the celebrities take turns saying in a video spot (above) that’s coupled with the pictures, earlier than they finish by reciting the marketing campaign’s slogan.

“These anti-democratic efforts most sometimes target individuals of shade, individuals with limited English proficiency, younger voters, individuals with disabilities, and different teams historically excluded from our political process,” the campaign’s news launch states. “‘And Nonetheless I Vote’ will spotlight tales of resistance and resilience from historically disenfranchised communities, whereas offering sensible tools to struggle again.”

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Already this yr, instances of voter suppression have been reported.

Most just lately, legal professionals for former President Barack Obama sent a cease-and-desist letter to a pro-Donald Trump group last week to demand that they cease airing an anti-Joe Biden advert in predominantly black communities in South Carolina that falsely used Obama’s words out of context to look like he was saying Biden and different Democrats would benefit from black voters.

An Obama spokeswoman advised PEOPLE in a press release that the advert “is straight out of the Republican disinformation playbook, and it’s clearly designed to suppress turnout amongst minority voters in South Carolina by taking President Obama’s voice out of context and twisting his words to mislead viewers.”

“Our vote is our voice. But far too many in this nation are actively plotting to silence our voice and block our capability to vote,” ​Vanita Gupta​, The Leadership Convention’s president and CEO, stated in a separate statement. “​‘And Still I Vote’​ is a rallying cry of democratic defiance, uniting communities within the widespread wrestle to guard and protect our voting rights and democracy. They’ll try to block our path to the poll box. And still we’ll struggle. And still we’ll persist. And nonetheless we’ll vote.”

Src: Alfre Woodard, Sunny Hostin & More Stars Join Anti-Voter Suppression Campaign with Striking 'And Still I Vote' Portraits
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