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Originally published by Capital B.

Kamora Greggs returned to her college campus with voting on her mind. She’d just visited her home in Jackson, Mississippi, about three hours away, when her mom encouraged her to exercise her right.

“And don’t have anybody change your mind about what you want to do,” Greggs recalled.

As a first time voter, the 19-year-old health and kinesiology major wanted to know more about the process, the role of government, and hear directly from her peers about why they thought voting is important.

She and dozens of other Coahoma Community College students participated in a September town hall – playing games like Levels, learning history and the power of the ballot box — at their school in Clarksdale.

“It’s a good way to learn with your friends,” Greggs said. “It really impacted me and made me want to actually get out there and spread the word and make sure other people my age know that it’s a good idea to get registered to vote.”

Black Disenfranchisement Has Not Been This Intense Since Jim Crow

With Election Day just weeks away, the experience is part of the Voting Is No Laughing Matter Tour. Rita Brent, an Emmy-winning comedian from Jackson, partnered with the Southern Poverty Law Center to host the five-stop campus initiative, which aims to empower students at the ballot box.

“To witness young people who are not only civically engaged but genuinely concerned about the state of our communities, our country, and the world gives me tremendous hope,” Brent said. “Their passion for justice, thirst for knowledge and their commitment to creating meaningful change remind me that our future is in capable hands.”

It mirrors renewed energy in civic engagement nationwide. It is one of several efforts focused on what some are calling the forgotten voters: college students, first-time voters, and the formerly incarcerated.

In another effort to mobilize younger voters, companies and groups transformed campus spaces into art installations, alongside on-site voter registration. And in North Carolina, a group is working to engage more with formerly incarcerated people who don’t always utilize their right to vote.

Since the weakening of the Voting Rights Act, attention has shifted to the South, where many communities are underserved, organizers told Capital B. The region is both a battleground and testing ground for voting rights. Decades of voter suppression, gerrymandering or redistricting, and landmark decisions such as Louisiana v. Callais have shaped the current political landscape.

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