“He never apologized for calling for the death penalty for the Central Park 5.”

Finally, Williams spoke.

“We all got some sin and crazy stuff in our life. But when he was in office, we were doing pretty good,” Williams said.

“He’s America first. I’m America first. If you look at values, which one carries my values? Trump,” he said. “I have to make a choice about which one fits me.”

Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC

Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC

Williams represents one solitary vote, but he is in a key demographic that Vice President Kamala Harris needs and Trump is working to chip away at — Black men.

Black voters are the bedrock of the Democratic Party coalition, and it’s a given that they will overwhelmingly support Harris in the upcoming general election.

But polls have shown Harris’ support is soft among Black men; some have said they support Trump and others suggest they may sit out the election. In a state where the race is neck-and-neck, that could mean the difference between winning and losing the White House.

In Georgia, a new Atlanta Journal-Constitution poll found that nearly three-quarters of Black voters said they will vote for Harris, who, if elected, would become the nation’s first woman — and second Black — president. But that lags behind the 88% who cast their ballot for Democrat Joe Biden in 2020. In a state where roughly one out of every three active voters is Black, that’s a problem for Harris.

So it’s hardly surprising that Barack Obama will make his first joint campaign appearance with Harris on Thursday in Atlanta as he seeks to rev up support, especially among Black men. The former president drew praise and criticism when he recently implied that sexism is the reason that some Black men “just aren’t feeling the idea of having a woman as president.”

“You’re coming up with all kinds of reasons and excuses,” Obama said about voting for Harris.

‘She’s also a sister’

Whatever the reason for their hesitance, the Harris campaign is working to woo Black men with just 13 days left until Election Day.

Over the past two weeks, Harris has made her case on a series of Black-oriented radio shows and podcasts, including sitting down with “The Shade Room,” Charlemagne tha God and Roland Martin, one of the organizers of the “Win With Black Men” campaign that raised $1.3 million from 17,000 mostly Black male donors less than 24 hours after Harris launched her campaign.

Along the way, Harris promised to work to decriminalize marijuana and acknowledged that racial disparities and bias still hamper Black communities through health care, voting rights, homeownership and wealth.

She also unveiled her “Opportunity Agenda for Black Men,” which includes providing forgivable business loans of up to $20,000 for entrepreneurs.

Pezo Johnson, a 52-year-old schoolteacher who also runs an antiviolence organization, is supporting Harris, although he said there are things about her agenda that he doesn’t like.

In conversations with Black men, he gets mixed messages about their support for Harris.

“When I talk to other brothers, they are sometimes a little wishy-washy on which way they want to go in this election,” Johnson said. “But she’s the most qualified candidate to be the leader of the free world, and she is also a sister. She stands for something. She is what we need in this country right now.”

Michael Tyler, the Harris campaign’s communications director, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that the vice president is the only candidate working to earn the support of Black men by putting forward an agenda that speaks to their aspirations.

“Vice President Harris is also the only candidate in this race without a history of disrespecting, degrading and demeaning Black men at every turn — that distinction goes to Donald Trump,” he added.

On Oct. 11, in the shadow of the gleaming Mercedes-Benz Stadium, a group of Black men gathered for “Brothas & Brews” at a nearby brewery to hear the likes of Jermaine Dupri and Isaac Hayes III urge them to vote for Harris.

In the decidedly Democratic crowd, Dontaye Carter, the chairman of the north Fulton Democratic Party, waved a copy of Harris’ plan while bluntly asking the crowd of 200 Black men, “What is Trump bringing us?”

Alfred Shivy Brooks, a member of the Atlanta Board of Education, who was also one of the evening’s speakers, said meetings like that, especially as early voting has started, are important as a means for Black men to talk through issues.

Brooks said he was not worried about the polling numbers.

“I see it as a true opportunity. There is a need to be intentional about what Black men want. What are our pain points? What policies will be most helpful for us?” he said. “But Black men, 100%, are going to come out and going to see a grand majority of them voting for Kamala Harris.”

After the event, Reginald Dreher, a 62-year-old property manager, took to the patio to enjoy a cigar. He stopped short of saying it was a victory cigar.

Credit: Ron Williams

Credit: Ron Williams

“I believe that you’re always running like you are behind. As far as I am concerned, we are behind and we still have work to do,” said Dreher, who has voted in every presidential election since casting his ballot for Jimmy Carter in 1980.

“But it’s time for a woman to take control,” he said.

Overhearing Dreher’s conversation, Terry Carmichael told him about his complicated relationship with the ballot box.

At 51 years old, the self-published author and entrepreneur has never voted.

That’s partly because he spent 15 years in federal prison for selling drugs and couldn’t vote as a convicted felon.

He points to the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, the Joe Biden-sponsored bill that expanded policing and harsh criminal punishments that fell hardest on Black and brown communities.

Credit: Ron Williams

Credit: Ron Williams

Carmichael doesn’t blame Biden for his troubles. But he said that if the president was still in the race against Trump, he probably would have skipped the election he is now eligible to vote in.

“Voting just didn’t really make sense to me,” Carmichael said. “Then Kamala came.”

Ignoring the noise

But Black men throughout Georgia who support Trump say their lives, at least economically, were better during his four years in office and that they are tired of supporting the Democratic Party, which has delivered very little in results that have improved their lives.

These men said they can ignore the noise around the former president and focus on his policies.

“It says more about Black men who are starting to think for themselves and not go for the herd mentality. It’s a very good thing, a healthy sign,” said Ben Carson, Trump’s former housing secretary. “We’ve traditionally had segments of the population, certain demographics, who just do what they’re told. And that’s not what America was ever meant to be.”

Janiyah Thomas, the Trump campaign’s Black media director, said the Harris campaign has continually overlooked and taken the Black community for granted, unlike Trump.

“Team Trump is not just talking about supporting the Black community. We are actively making inroads, building trust and delivering results that matter,” Thomas said.

But the election landscape is also littered with false or misleading information, some of it about Harris’ tenure as California attorney general.

“I am supporting Trump because I believe the Democratic Party is implementing a genocide against Black Americans,” Trump supporter Denmark Freedman said. “They are a threat to the nation that my forefathers sacrificed blood, sweat and tears to preserve.”

At a campaign rally last week in Cobb County, Trump said any African American who voted for Harris needed to have their head examined: “Because they are really screwing you.”

Credit: Miguel Martinez

Credit: Miguel Martinez

K.D. Boyd is not convinced on either side. The last time Boyd, who runs a nonprofit organization, voted for a mainstream candidate was in 2008 when he cast his ballot for Obama.

He said he is not voting for Trump or Harris.

The 45-year-old ex-Marine said Trump used his privilege to get out of serving in the military, and as someone who does survival training on the side, he doesn’t like the fact that Harris wants to ban assault weapons.

“Neither one of them deserves my vote,” he said. “But I think it is finally good for both parties to reach out to Black men. It is finally good that the conversation is happening, and we are not just devoting 90% of our votes to one party.”

Still, on Nov. 5, when Boyd goes in to vote, he will write in the name “Lando.”

That’s his blue pit bull who died two years ago.

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