PRAIRIE VIEW, TX – Students and community members of Prairie View, TX will march across the campus of PVAMU and to the polls on Election Day in order to draw attention to Waller County’s unrelenting, decades-long campaign of voter suppression targeting the city and its Historically Black University; the coalition will also make known five demands for justice to kick off an advocacy initiative targeting both Congress and the TX State Legislature.

The March will commence at 10am from University College, the freshmen dormitory located at 505 Anne Preston St., Prairie View, TX 77446, and will make its way to University View, 240 E.M. Morris St., University Village North, 655 D.W. Martin St., University Village, 170 L.W. Minor, the Athletic Complex, and finally will conclude at the Willie Albert Tempton Memorial Student Center, where polls will be open. The march will be led by former Congressman Craig Washington, a living legend who served as plaintiffs’ counsel in the landmark Supreme Court case Symm v. US, which originated in Prairie View and established the right of college students to vote in their county of residence during their tenure at school.

Despite that precedent, Waller County continued to harass and intimidate students, even going so far as to indict several on voting fraud charges in 1992; in 2004, the Waller County DA tried to resurrect the residency issue, and threatened to bar PVAMU students from voting in the county; the PVAMU campus finally got its own polling location in 2013, but the community marched for it; and here we find ourselves in 2018, and the officialdom of Waller County has attempted to block student registrations via bureaucratic maneuver and are now facing a lawsuit brought by students over the County Commissioners' Court's outrageous decision not to schedule any early voting Prairie View during the first week of early voting (by contrast, other communities in Waller Co. enjoy on average 4.6 days of early voting in the first week). While the County Commissioners’ Court has attempted to appease Prairie View with piecemeal efforts like extended hours, students and community members realize this is far too little way too late, especially in light of the sinister history hanging over this county. The coalition has and will continue to demand a fulsome, just, and permanent set of solutions.

Jessica Purnell is the facilitating organizer and the assembled coalition includes: the campus chapter of the NAACP, numerous student groups including Greek Letter organizations and activist collectives, former and current elected officials, and Democratic organizations including the Waller County Democratic Party, Mike Siegel for Congress (TX10), and Beto for Texas (US Senate, Jr. of TX).