“The divisiveness — the racial divide — it has motivated people of color, I think,” Belinda George, a local resident, said. “People have seen the consequences of sitting out. They’ve seen what’s going on.”
The region, which includes a number of the state’s mostly heavily Black counties, can sometimes be overlooked because of the better-known and more populous Black communities to the east and the south.
“Sometimes, for presidential candidates and small rural counties that look like us, the engagement piece is not always a priority,” Nick Fryson, a young organizer,…
