Long Island
Vote for Your Community
West Columbia Street, Hempstead
Chilean muralist Dasic Fernández painted this piece for the Center for Popular Democracy, working with Make the Road NY and New York Communities for Change. It features real local activists and a bilingual message: "Vota por tu comunidad / Vote for your community." The mural sits in a Nassau County community with a large immigrant and working-class population.
THE RIGHT AT STAKE
The right to be heard in your own community. The people living and working in a community have a right to a vote that counts and a voice in the decisions that shape their neighborhood.
WHY HERE?
Commissioned by the Center for Popular Democracy in partnership with Make the Road New York and New York Communities for Change, this mural was created specifically for Hempstead's immigrant and working-class community. The painting features the actual faces of local activists, rather than generic figures. That detail matters because the people encouraging their neighbors to vote are their actual neighbors.
ESSENTIAL QUESTION
Up until the late 1990s, the people of Hempstead could vote in every election and still never elect someone who represented them as a result of how the district lines were drawn. That leads to the question: Is voting enough if the system decides you can never actually win?
THEN & NOW
Hempstead has a documented history of racially polarized voting. In 1988, the Center for Constitutional Rights filed a federal lawsuit alleging that the town's at-large election system diluted the voting power of Black and Latino residents, violating the Voting Rights Act of 1965. At the time, Hempstead's population was already 13% Black and Latino, yet every one of its six Republican council members lived in predominantly white neighborhoods. In 1997, a federal judge ordered Hempstead to replace its at-large system with six geographic districts, ruling that the existing system "invidiously excludes Blacks from effective participation in political life." The right to representative, meaningful voting in Hempstead isn't abstract history. It was won through a specific legal fight less than 30 years ago.
TAKE ACTION
Students can learn more information through Make the Road New York which is the largest progressive, immigrant-led community organization in New York State focusing on immigrant rights, workers’ rights, and community power. It operates with over 25,000 members through community centers in Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island, Long Island, and Westchester County. Another possible way to get involved is through The Workplace Project, which is a Hempstead-based organization that advocates for immigrant day laborers and domestic workers on Long Island.
Artist: Dasic Fernández · Commissioned by: Center for Popular Democracy
