Stacey Abrams, the hottest voting rights advocate in the United States, has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, according to The Hill, on Feb. 1, 2021. As a Black woman and a Democrat, she knows full well the inequity of voter rights in the United States.
Abrams and Fair Fight Action were instrumental in raising Black voter turnout in Georgia for the 2020 General Election. This feat took years, but with this election cycle, the longtime red state turned blue.
Her nomination came from Lars Haltbrekken, a Socialist Party politician in Norway’s Parliament. His announcement came on the first day of Black History Month in the United States and the final day for nominating someone for the prize.
King was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964.
Haltbrekken said:
Abram’s work follows in Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s footsteps in the fight for equality before the law and civil rights. [Her] efforts to complete King’s work are crucial if the United States of American shall succeed in it effort to create fraternity between all its peoples and a peacful and just society.
Thousands of individuals are eligible to nominate someone for the prize, which is announced every October. The shortlist for the Nobel Peace Prize will be released in March.
Russian dissident Alexei Navalny and teenager Greta Thunberg — best known for her climate activism.
In 2014, Abrams started the New Georgia Project to register unregistered Black Georgians to vote in the midterms that year.
Abrams ran against Brian Kemp in 2018. Abrams suffered a narrow defeat. Following the election, she created Fair Fight Action to continue fighting against voter suppression in her home state, Georgia, and around the United States.
Speculation is high that Abrams will announce she will run for the Georgia governorship. If she wins, she would be the first Black woman to hold the position.
Barack Obama was the last United States winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009.
Written by Cathy Milne-Ware
Source:
The Hill: Stacey Abrams nominated for Nobel Peace Prize; by Marty Johnson
Featured and Top Image by Callie Giovanna Courtesy of TED Conference’s Flickr Page – Creative Commons License
Inset Image by Sharon Farmer Courtesy of Brookings Institution’s Flickr Page – Creative Commons License
