Voter Education Project Organizational Records

The Voter Education Project (VEP) began in 1962 as part of the Southern Regional Council. Initially VEP granted funds to civil rights organizations to support voter education, voter registration drives, and voting-related research. In 1964, Vernon Jordan, the second executive director of the VEP, expanded the programs goals to include citizenship training, voter education, and leadership training in the southern United States, while continuing to provide funds to independent voter and civil rights groups, including the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and the League of Women Voters. The VEP’s work with the League of Women Voters is highlighted in the materials below. In 1971, VEP under the leadership of John Lewis, became an independent organization and functioned as a research center and became known as an authoritative source for statistics on southern elections and voter registration in general. Lewis also forged the VEP into an activist organization, launching Voter Mobilization Tours with Georgia state legislator and civil rights advocate Julian Bond.

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Article on the 1976 election, and how the VEP made spot-checks of predominantly Black precincts in each of the 11 southern states and determined that, on average, between 60 and 70 percent of all registered Blacks turned out to vote, with over 95 percent estimated to have voted for Jimmy Carter for President. 1 page.

Article on a group of combat veterans, who were formerly foot-soldiers of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, gathered to relive the civil rights campaigns of the 1960s, and talked about the early days of the organization and their struggles, and reflected on their current involvement in good causes, such as elected politics, labor organizing, community projects, and health care. 1 page.