An accurate population count is critical to upholding individual rights and the efficient function of the United States government. It is an essential tool that determines the equitable distribution of services and ensures true democratic representation.

Much has been written, postulated, and quite frankly, misunderstood about the generation born between 1980 and 1996—also known as the millennials or Generation Y.

The peculiar institution, coined by South Carolinian John C. Calhoun, seventh vice president of the United States (1825-1832), was a euphemism used by white southerners to describe slavery in the South, a time in our history when Blacks were counted as “fractional” persons in the U.S.

Today, the mainstay of our American democracy – the sacred right to be heard at the ballot box – is under continued threat: a threat which the National Urban League has always recognized has an impact on the state of Black America.

The average American may be hard pressed to point Randolph County out on a map. This little county on rural, former plantation lands in southwestern Georgia was certainly not at the forefront of the struggle for voting rights in the United States.