Black People, We Have to Show Up
(LOCHEARN – May 30, 2026) – Dear Family,
Do you remember where you were on Tuesday, November 4, 2008?
I do.
That morning, around 7 a.m., I walked around the corner to my polling place and saw something I had never seen before. The line was out the door.
For a little perspective, I live in Sandtown. Zip code 21217. A community that has endured concentrated poverty, undereducation, addiction, violence, and mass incarceration. Baltimoreans make up 40% of the state’s prison population, while the city represents only 9% of the state’s population. Yet on that morning, the people showed up. DO YOU HEAR ME? Simply unforgettable.
It reminded me of another historic moment. April 27, 1994. The first free election in democratic South Africa. Lines stretching for miles. Black South Africans — many voting for the very first time in their lives — standing for hours under the sun because they understood what was at stake. That election ended with Nelson Mandela taking his rightful place in history as the first democratically elected president of South Africa.
Two nations. Two historic lines. One undeniable truth:
When Black people show up, history changes.
My pundit buddy over in DC later called the 2008 election an anomaly.
I still struggle to see it that way.
What I saw was Black people participating in democracy because they believed their vote mattered. Whatever the explanation, that day ended with the election of President Barack Obama — and echoed the same spirit that swept Mandela into power fourteen years earlier.
My point is simple:
Black people showed up.
A lot has changed since 2008. Yet some things remain stubbornly the same — both in the United States and in South Africa. We still wrestle with poverty. We still struggle against educational inequities. We still face mass incarceration and economic disparities. Too often, progress for Black people feels like one step forward and two steps back on both sides of the Atlantic.
And right now, it is war.
I need you to understand that. Not metaphorically. Not as a figure of speech. It is war against Black political power in this country. The Voting Rights Act — paid for with the literal blood of civil rights marchers on the Edmund Pettus Bridge — is being gutted by the Supreme Court in real time. Conservative justices are systematically dismantling every legal protection our ancestors bled and died to secure.
And it’s not just in the courts.
Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett — one of the boldest Black voices in Washington — just got bumped in Texas. Thank God Jim Clyburn survived in South Carolina. But make no mistake: they are coming for our seats. They are coming for our districts. They are coming for our power. And they are organized, funded, and focused.
Black people cannot afford to be entitled. We cannot afford to be privileged about this. We cannot afford to assume our seats are safe, our votes don’t matter, or that somebody else will handle it. And we damn sure cannot afford to think that somebody from elsewhere is coming to save us.
The people of South Africa stood in lines for miles to cast a ballot for the first time. Our ancestors marched across the Edmund Pettus Bridge and got their heads cracked open for the right to vote. Slavery is over. You are now free to move about the country. So move. To the polls. On June 23rd.
Meanwhile, here at home, Delegate Sandy Rosenberg stood before a 99% Black audience in Edmondson Village and said he had no problem supporting a federally indicted state senator. Think about that. Whatever your politics, what cannot be denied is the cohesion that the community demonstrates when its interests are on the line. They are not going to eat their own. Even amid serious allegations, they stay publicly united and keep it moving.
And the allegations against Senator Dalya Attar are serious. Lives were disrupted. A police officer lost his pay because of her alleged actions. The feds rarely miss — and they even have her brother caught up in it. Yet the level of public scrutiny has looked nothing like what we’ve seen when Black elected officials face allegations.
Remember Sheila Dixon. Remember Catherine Pugh. Remember Marilyn Mosby. Remember Jackie McClean.
The Sun’s rhetoric was on the front page every single day. Relentless. Tenacious. Unforgiving on every Black political mistake. And let’s be clear — the same Sun that roasted our leaders only apologized for 185 years of racist coverage because the Baltimore Banner bought off half its staff and they were hanging on by a shoestring. That wasn’t conscience. That was survival.
If Senator Attar were Black, she would have been obliterated before the 5 o’clock news. We know how those political lynchings go.
Now Senator Attar is the incumbent opponent of Malcolm Ruff, who is running for State Senate in the 41st district alongside Chezia Cager for Delegate. Malcolm Ruff is exactly the kind of candidate we should be rallying around. Instead, some of us are online tearing each other apart while her community quietly circles the wagons around her.
But this column is not really about Dalya Attar.
It’s about us.
Because let’s talk about Baltimore County.
Izzy Patoka is running for Baltimore County Executive. He is Julian Jones’s toughest opponent. And here is what you need to know about Izzy Patoka: as a sitting Democratic County Council member, he sided with Republicans on redistricting to dilute a majority Black district. Let that sink in. A Democrat. Voting with Republicans. To take power away from Black constituents.
And now he wants our votes. (Are you serious?)
That is why the entire Democratic establishment has turned against him. That is why Governor Wes Moore, Congressman Kweisi Mfume, and legendary political strategist Larry Gibson are aligned behind Julian Jones. This is not an accident. This is the same coalition that unified behind Angela Alsobrooks in 2024 — and watched her dismantle David Trone and his $60 million campaign. In a 2-to-1 Democratic state, when Black voters show up unified, we don’t just win. We dominate.
The blueprint is right in front of us. It is less than two years old.
So when a retired Black cop out in Randallstown spends his time on Facebook stumping for Patoka — the man who voted with Republicans to disenfranchise a Black community — that is not a political disagreement. That is confusion. That is a brother carrying water for someone who worked against his own people.
And to that brother — forgive him. Stop blasting him online. The Word says if you have a problem with your brother, go to him. If that doesn’t work, take a witness. And if that doesn’t work, take an elder. We say we believe. But do we?
Look at the discipline other communities display when their interests are at stake. They don’t always agree behind closed doors. But they understand the value of unity when it counts. They’re playing chess. We’re playing checkers. Or Uno. Or a video game with the sound off.
Black people, we have to get our heads in the game.
And the game is right in front of us.
Julian Jones is making history in Baltimore County. Malcolm Ruff and Chezia Cager are fighting for the 41st district. Sabrina Tapp-Harper is running for Sheriff of Baltimore City — a critical race that will shape how justice is administered in our community.
Out Liberty Road way, the 10th state legislative district is wide open with the retirement of the accomplished Delegate Adrienne Jones. That seat will help determine who speaks for that community going forward. And the new County Council races will begin to reshape what an expanded body looks and feels like for years to come.
Down in Anne Arundel County, we’re pulling for Pete Smith for County Executive. Like Julian Jones, Pete is trying to make history. He’s a Marine. A cybersecurity expert. A dutiful Councilman taking a leap of faith. He has earned our attention and our support.
So just in the Greater Baltimore area alone, every single one of us has a reason to get out there.
This election matters. Yes, politics is full of contradictions. Yes, politicians will disappoint us. Yes, the system is imperfect and stained with the blood of our ancestors. But unless something dramatically changes, this is the arena we’re in — and non-participation is not a neutral act. It is a concession.
They are counting on our apathy. They are banking on our exhaustion. They are betting that we will stay home.
Prove them wrong.
They marched. They bled. They endured humiliation, violence, and intimidation. Some died. All so that we might have the right to cast a ballot. And in South Africa, they waited in lines for miles — some of them elderly, some of them weeping — just to vote for the very first time. They didn’t take that right for granted. Neither can we.
The least we can do is use it.
So here’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to get up. Brush our teeth. Put on something nice — you know you’ve got clothes in that closet you still haven’t worn yet. Get a little juice. Knock on your neighbor’s door. Walk with them to the polls.
Early Voting begins June 11th.
Election Day is Tuesday, June 23, 2026.
What we are not going to do is sit this one out. What we are not going to do is complain afterward without having shown up beforehand.
It’s time to get boots on the ground. June 23rd, y’heard?!
And I want to leave you with this.
Do you remember that feeling? November 4, 2008. Black people at the polls in droves. Brothers. Sisters. Grandmothers. First-time voters. Old heads who never thought they’d see the day. We were activated like never before in my lifetime. There was something magical in the air that morning in Sandtown that I will never forget as long as I live.
That same magic visited South Africa on April 27, 1994. Lines for miles. Tears streaming down faces. A people long denied their humanity finally standing in their power. Nelson Mandela called it the birth of a rainbow nation. Barack Obama called his victory a defining moment — proof that change is possible.
Both of those moments happened because Black people showed up.
We have that same power today. The coalition that elected Angela Alsobrooks to the United States Senate is alive and well. The energy that sent Barack Obama to the White House is still in us. The spirit that put Nelson Mandela in the presidency after 27 years in prison — that spirit does not die.
We need that same energy right now. We need those same numbers. We need that same fire.
The Voting Rights Act is under assault. Jasmine Crockett got bumped in Texas. They are coming for Jim Clyburn. They are coming for our districts, our representation, and our future. And our candidates — right here in Greater Baltimore — are in the fight of their lives.
Brothers and sisters — IT IS WAR OUT HERE. WE NEED THAT SAME ENERGY AGAIN. OUR LIVES DEPEND ON IT.
Get out there and vote. And don’t come alone.
Bring a friend.
Doni Glover is the founder and publisher of BMORENews.com, now in its 24th year of covering Black Baltimore, and the founder of the Joe Manns Black Wall Street Awards, now in its 15th year. He is also the host of the Emmy-nominated Doni Glover podcast and The Doni Glover Show on WMAR-TV 2.
Doni Glover is the founder and publisher of BMORENews.com, now in its 24th year of covering Black Baltimore, and the founder of the Joe Manns Black Wall Street Awards, now in its 15th year. He is also the host of the Emmy-nominated Doni Glover podcast and The Doni Glover Show on WMAR-TV 2.
