Cookeville Among Cities For Nationwide Votercade Event Saturday

The Cookeville-Putnam County NAACP is hitting the streets to celebrate the life of U.S. Representative John Lewis and the right to vote.

President Thomas Savage said Cookeville will be joining 180 other U.S. cities on May 8 at 1:00 PM. He said participants will use their vehicles in a votercade across Cookeville, starting at the Leslie Town Centre.

“Holding on to what we got and celebrating the life of John Lewis and how he was a martyr for this cause,” Savage said. “We want to keep his story going and we don’t want to take a backwards step in having our right to vote. It should be easy to vote, not hard to vote.”

Savage said two pieces of legislation they are supporting are the For The People Act and the John Lewis Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. He said this is not an event for carpooling, since they want as many vehicles as possible for the votercade.

Savage said that any group in a county touching Putnam County can join.

“Our goal is to have a minimum of 50 cars, we hope to have 100,” Savage said. “We will line up and we will decorate the cars with posters of John Lewis, we have a 14 foot banner.”

Savage said that this currently a consequential time for voting rights across the United States. He said that John Lewis was a veteran of the civil rights movement during his life and action needs to be taken since his passing to protect voting.

“After going through all the codes and Jim Crow and getting the right to vote, The Voting Rights Act signed by Lyndon Johnson in 1965,” Savage said. “To have to address it again in the year 2021 is truly important because it’s been gutted and after this election there has been so much legislation that has happened to suppress the right to vote, that we’re going to have to do this thing again.”

Savage said that participants can RSVP on the Cookeville-Putnam County NAACP website, but it is not required. The National John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Action Day will start at the Leslie Town Centre at 1:00 PM, and following speakers, participants will drive through Cookeville and conclude the votercade at the West End Community Center.