FLINT, Mich. — LaTosha Brown stepped off what she calls the “Blackest Bus in America,” to the sound of James Brown’s “I’m Black and I’m Proud.”
The longtime political organizer was in Flint to mobilize black voters — one stop on an 11-state tour. Brown and her organization, the Black Voters Matter Fund, which she co-founded with political strategist Cliff Albright in November 2016, are doing this work in an unusual way. In the first 20 minutes or so in Flint, before a group of about 20 people, the words “vote,” “voting” and “election” never left Brown’s mouth. Not once.
Instead, she asked community organization leaders who had turned out to Flint’s Neighborhood Engagement Hub about the details of life in Flint, the challenges faced and the solutions imagined and tried.