President of the Sumter County NAACP, Eugene Edge, gave an interview on the morning of October 29 on Jackson Street as volunteers poured into Code Black Atl. Edge noted that the National and State level of the NAACP had chosen the Sumter County branch of the NAACP as one of five branches out of the 120 units in the State of Georgia to launch it’s Get Out the Vote initiative, or GOTV. Volunteers prepared to go door to door to encourage citizens to vote.

Edge told how they were focusing on specific areas with registered voters that have low turnout. “So we’re trying to target that group in particular.”

He stated the effort was focused on voter participation. “We’re not targeting any specific group. We’re just trying to motivate people to get out and vote.”

Edge told how the effort had drawn others to the County. “We have teams from Atlanta and Columbus. We also have the [NAACP] president from Dougherty County.” He told how Sumter County was a key focus. “They chose Sumter County as the catalyst to launch this campaign.”

Edge told how they planned to target the West and South parts of Americus, and Plains.

When asked if focusing on Sumter as one of a select few was a National or State decision, Edge replied; “it was made on both national and state, but national was the one that chose those particular counties.”

When asked if there was anything else he would like to share, Edge replied that they were just happy to be chosen as one of the counties.

Melinda Merritt was among the volunteers who had come to encourage voting. She shared her motivation. “I’m out here to help get the vote out, to get people to go and vote!”

When asked why it was an important issue to her, Merritt told of going to jail for picketing at the Martin Theatre for the right to vote. “So I want to continue in that vain.” She told how a woman running for president was also a motivation.

Merritt told what it was like being arrested at the Theatre. “Oh, it was horrifying, because I was only 12. And we were out trying to vote-get the right to voter, rather, and they came and arrested us and took us to Sumter County Jail.” She told how it was a new facility for juveniles.

Merritt recounted the ordeal. “My daddy kept trying to get us out, because he was a businessman, but they wouldn’t let us out until John F. Kennedy calls, and he told Fred Chappell who was the Sheriff at that time, that if he didn’t let us out. . .the plane was going to land on top of the court house, and it was not going to be pretty.”