Granddaughter of slave to cast electoral college vote to elect next president
Hazel Ingram will cast one of New York's 29 Electoral College votes in this upcoming election.
Hazel Ingram will cast one of New York’s 29 Electoral College votes in this upcoming election.
For Ingram, who is 93 years old, the significance of being chosen to cast the vote by the Working Families Party is not lost on her, especially because she is the granddaughter of a slave. She can still remember sitting in her grandmother’s lap and listening to the stories of her struggle for freedom.
When she moved to New York in her twenties, away from the segregation that was rampant through the South and would have prevented her from voting altogether, she first realized that she could participate in the civic process.
“I loved it! I was ready and when they said let’s go and register to vote, I was right there. Been voting ever since and never missed not one year,” she told NBC News.
Ever since then, she has been politically active, even knocking on doors for campaigns and working to get out the vote.
“My only sister always said I would be one of those great politicians. Maybe this is what happens. I never dreamed that I was going to be here,” she said of being chosen for the Electoral College.
“Hazel’s energy and determination to fight for the rights of working families has been an inspiration to our members for decades, not just in New York, but in other regions where we are active,” said Hector Figueroa, president of SEIU 32BJ. “When members see an African American woman like her, whose grandmother was a slave, spend hours canvassing, week after week, they say, ‘if she can do it, so can I’.”
