Vote! The Choice Is Still Yours!
posted by Keyona Smith | November 23, 2019 | In NewsThe Broadwell College of Business and Economics screened the documentary originally released in 1964: “Vote and The Choice Is Yours,” which highlights the importance of voting and the power voting can have. The film also focuses on the work of Fayetteville State University students in collaboration with the North Carolina Film Board and then-governor Terry Sanford, to collect data and voting impressions throughout Cumberland County.
Exhibited on October 30 from the original 16-millimeter film by Dr. Chuck Tryon of FSU’s English department, the documentary is significant in its work to parallel and mirror new and old issues of voting rights and voter suppression. Preserved by Charlotte-Mecklenburg’s Library, it was released after the 1964 election and the passing of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
It has the ability to “connect us across space, and if they can do that, they can connect us across time,” said Dr. Tryon about documentaries.
The first woman in the film, in rollers, looks into the camera and backs away, explaining that she will be voting because she is a taxpayer, as if it’s as simple as can be.
The FSU students at the time analyzed voter registration by surveying 500 voting adults on March 21, 1964 and asking the following questions: Have you registered? Will you vote? And is your vote important?
More importantly, the voters understood that politics could not be criticized without voting. Another interviewee expressed that, “every vote is important, and every voter should vote, one way or another. I believe we would be remiss if we ignored a second chance at change from the inside of our community, out.”
As mentioned by FSU historian and professor, Dr. Stanley Johnson, during the panel discussion that followed the screening of the documentary, there is a huge difference in enthusiasm and understanding.
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