Courtland Cox

In 1964, Courtland Cox was among hundreds of college students who traveled to Mississippi to help register Black people to vote, drawing strong opposition from the state’s segregationists. The project, known as Freedom Summer, was a turning point in the civil rights movement.

Sixty years later, Cox, 83, is working with the NAACP to mobilize 300,000 volunteers to help get out the Black vote ahead of the 2024 Presidential Election. To explain his lifetime commitment to the issue, Cox cited a quote from civil rights activist Ella Baker: “We who believe in freedom cannot rest.”

Cox’s activism began at Howard University in Washington, D.C., where at 19 he joined the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. Cox says he was inspired by events like the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott and the bravery of the Little Rock Nine who desegregated their Arkansas high school in 1957 in the face of threats and physical harassment. He soon found himself participating in local sit-ins and helping organize the 1963 March on Washington. He tackled voter disenfranchisement head on with the Mississippi Freedom Summer Project. “They used poll tax, literacy tests and violence to make sure that Black people did not vote,” says Cox. “It showed the country that Black people really wanted to vote and become part of the electoral process.”

Over the decades, Cox’s career veered into local and federal government positions focused on working with African American businesses. But he’s continued to explore ways to help expand Black voting power and elevate the Black community in Washington, D.C.. His efforts with the NAACP this election cycle continues that work that began all those years ago at Howard.

“People need to understand that this is not a straight line, this is a battle,” says Cox. “This is not about, ‘We did this in 1960 and therefore everything will be alright.’ No, every day, it’s a battle.”