Philly's Black motorcycle clubs hit the streets to encourage Black men to vote

Source: NBC News

Oct. 23, 2024, 5:00 AM EDT


PHILADELPHIA — For 30 years, the Rev. Alyn E. Waller has led his flock at Enon Tabernacle Baptist Church, the city’s largest Black congregation. But on Saturday, the good pastor led another kind of assembly: 100 Black men, mostly clad in leather, astride a pack of snarling motorcycles. “Here we are in Philly, 100 fellas on bikes in the city and the police are helping us, not chasing us,” Waller said, a chorus of hogs, trikes and slingshots rising around him. “At the end of the day, we know that we have done some good, not just for us, but for everybody.”

Just days ahead of Pennsylvania’s voter registration deadline and weeks before Election Day, this Harley-Davidson-riding pastor and a collective of some of Philadelphia’s Black motorcycle clubs, along with two nonpartisan voter engagement groups, are encouraging men in some of the city’s historically Black neighborhoods, where voter turnout and political engagement has been low, to register and to show up at the polls.

“We’ve got Black Bikers Vote, Black Men Vote and then just people who care about democracy getting together on a beautiful day to ride bikes through some of the areas in Philadelphia that need to be reminded to exercise their franchise,” Waller said. Joe Paul, executive director of Black Men Vote, doesn’t ride motorcycles. But he did dress the part on the unseasonably warm day in a black moto jacket while emphasizing the need to engage a demographic that has often felt overlooked.

“If we’re revving up these engines, we know brothers are going to pay attention, and it’s important for them to see themselves riding through the neighborhood,” he said. This election cycle, Black Men Vote set a goal of registering 100,000 Black men across the country. Paul said it has hit about 95% of that goal, with 60,000 of those registered Black men coming from Philadelphia.

Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/phillys-black-motorcycle-clubs-black-men-vote-rcna175288