Foreign Correspondent: Feb 2

Foreign Correspondent returns to ABC tonight for 2021.

Reporter Karishma Vyas is in Georgia reporting on the electoral vote by black women.

Meet the formidable women in Georgia who fought for democracy and won. They battled generations of racism and voter suppression, inspiring record black voter turnout. Now their sights are set on the American South.

In Foreign Correspondent’s season return, we meet the formidable women in Georgia who fought for democracy and won.

In last November’s presidential elections, black women in the southern US state of Georgia pulled off the unthinkable. They delivered a staunchly conservative state to Democrat Joe Biden.

Their secret? Record voter turnout.

Now they want to do it again in the Senate run-off elections.

“This vote is a hammer and you can use it. Or maybe it’s a flashlight and you can see your way out of this,” says Deborah Scott from Georgia Stand-Up, a non-partisan voting rights group based in the capital Atlanta.

Deborah and her team are part of a movement which has campaigned tirelessly for more than a decade to mobilise minorities to vote.

It’s an uphill battle. Activists believe the state government has been illegally purging tens of thousands off the electoral roll – a tactic they call ‘voter suppression’.

But this just adds fuel to their fire. “The more you suppress us, the more we are coming for you,” says Deborah.

Our US-based reporter Karishma Vyas goes to the Deep South as Deborah and her team gear up for the crucial Senate poll which will decide control of Congress.

We hear from voters who have been purged from the roll, from white militia members who question the validity of their vote, and from the volunteers mobilising young people to turn out like never before.

“It’s been an awakening,” says 25-year-old Georgia Stand-Up organiser Ariel. “It’s a great fearlessness because you feel as though anything is possible.”

In a timely and inspiring story, we see the black women of Georgia successfully turn out record numbers of voters, even as powerful forces conspire to undermine their democratic rights.

For Deborah and her team, this is just the beginning. They have become a new force in US politics.

“As Georgia goes, so does the rest of the South. We see it as a tipping point,” says Deborah Scott.

Producer: Catherine Scott

Tuesday 2 February at 8pm on ABC.