Stay Connected
Atlanta Black Star/Video/News Video
News VideoPoliticsVideo

Chance The Rapper Leads Thousands of Young Voters to the Polls in Chicago

Posted byBy Ricky Riley | Published on: CommentsComments (0)

Chicago native Chance The Rapper escorted a caravan of young Chicagoans to a local polling place on the last day of early voting Monday, Nov. 7.

This all occurred after the young musician’s free pre-election concert at Grant Park’s Petrillo Music Shell. The event was hosted by his nonprofit, Social Works. While he was surrounded by thousands of young millennials, they all gallivanted to an early voting super center in Chicago’s Loop to cast their votes. In addition, organizers from the city’s Black Youth Project 100 led the crowd through the streets.

According to ABC 7 Chicago, there has been record-shattering early voter turnout. As of this report, more than 284,000 people voted early. Cook County officials state that these new numbers easily broke the record set in 2008.

Participants canvassed social media with the hashtag #paradetothepolls with videos and photos from last night’s event.

In a tweet from Monday, Chance told his fans that the venue had been relocated and that he had not voted yet.

User @sizetoosmall recalls almost crying after the 23-year-old entertainer passed her.

Furthermore, the rapper clarifies the local news report, which claimed that only hundreds showed up. He wants everyone to know that there were thousands.

 

Independent journalism still matters.

We hope this story was worth your time. For over 14 years, Atlanta Black Star has stayed Black-owned and independently run. We didn't get here by waiting on ad budgets that were never built to prioritize us. Our readers did that.

Corporate support for Black media has always been thin. Outlets like ours get roughly 1% of the $170 billion spent on U.S. advertising each year, and that margin is shrinking further as advertisers walk back the DEI-linked commitments they made in 2020. That's the backdrop. It's not why we're asking.

The wider picture isn't any steadier. Newspaper ad revenue has fallen more than 80% since 2005, and local newsrooms are closing at a rate of roughly two a week nationwide. When outlets go under, it's rarely the ones built to center a Black perspective from the ground up that get to stick around.

We know a request for support isn't why you came here. But without readers choosing to fund this work directly, the depth of reporting we can do at home and abroad shrinks along with everyone else's. If you're not in a position to give, that doesn't change how much we value you as a reader.

If you are able to, a recurring contribution does more for us than a single one-time gift, because it lets us plan the next investigation instead of just the next invoice. It takes about 30 seconds, no long form, no account. Thank you for continuing to support independent journalism and freedom of the press.

Give once Give monthly Support another way

Related Stories

Back to top