This is a word, a podcast from Slate. I'm your host, Jason Johnson. The Black vote was

critical in electing Joe Biden in giving Democrats control of the Senate. But now, with a crucial

midterm election looming, the rights of Black voters are under threat. And advocates are fighting back.

Everybody's got a role to play. Not everybody can can be the journalist or be the professor or be

the one who's on the mic leading the rallies or being the one that's leading the civil disobedience.

But everybody's got a role they can play. Black voters matter coming up on a word with me.

Jason Johnson, stay with us.

Welcome to a word, a podcast about race, impolitics, and everything else. I'm your host,

Jason Johnson. We're only eve of a high stakes midterm election with abortion,

LGBTQ rights and accountability for violent political extremists all on the ballot.

For millions of African Americans, voting rights themselves are at stake this year.

The success of activists and getting out the vote in critical states in 2020

fueled a backlash with many Republican officials pushing through laws to weaken voting access

and dilute the power of the Black vote. But voting rights activists aren't staying on the sidelines,

they're coming up with new strategies to get people across their communities and across the

country to the polls. One of the people leading that charge is Cliff Albright. He's a co-founder and

executive director of the Black voters matter fund. Cliff Albright, welcome to a word.

Hey, thanks for having me. How did you get involved in this mission? And what exactly does the

Black voters matter fund do day in and day out? That's a great question. There's a lot that we do

and there's different dimensions to it. And some people only know like one side of it,

like they know about the black as bus in America. And they say, oh, you know, the people that go

around all across the country in that big old Black bus and do fun events and create excitement

...