On Saturday August 1st, the Maryland Sierra Club made history on the Eastern Shore. On that day sixty-five volunteers, including nine Sierra Club members, registered 265 new voters in three precincts of Maryland State Assembly District 37A. This effort marked the first time that farmers, environmental activists and African-American leaders have worked together through the political process to address the power imbalance that threatened environmental and economic health on the Eastern Shore.

The voter registration campaign was organized by an ad hoc coalition called the Community of Concerned Citizens of the Eastern Shore that included the Circle of Leaders (an African-American leadership group), the Delmarva Contract Poultry Growers Association, the Haztrak Coalition, the Worcester Environmental Trust and the Maryland Sierra Club. Sierra Club members Vivian Newman, Jan Graham, Ilia Fehrer and Chris Bedford played a critical role in the nine month organizing effort that led to this unprecedented effort which, by the August 17th deadline, had registered over one thousand new voters in District 37A.

"Without the Sierra Club's leadership and support," said Circle of Leaders's Edward Lee, "This would never have happened. It meant a lot to African-Americans to have environmentalists listen to their concerns, ask for their help on environmental issues and then to work together to build political power together."

"Poultry growers many times feel like they are fighting alone, " said Tim King, President of the Delmarva Contract Poultry Growers Association. "We are blamed for Pfiesteria, for over fertilization and just about everything else associated with chicken production. Yet we have no power over that production. The integrators (Big Chicken) control everything but take responsibility for nothing. The Sierra Club was the first environmental organization to reach out to us as farmers on the lower shore. I hope this voter registration is just the beginning of a lot of projects we do together."

On August 1st, volunteers gathered early at Wesley Temple Methodist Church on the west side of Salisbury to have breakfast and be trained as voter registrars by Carol Bosserman of the Tri-County League of Women Voters. At 10:30 teams of farmers, Sierra Club members and African-American volunteers spread out over three precincts: two in Salisbury and one in Cambridge, to register voters.

Working in interracial teams, the volunteers went door-to-door, even stopping cars to register new voters. "It was amazing," remembers Sierran Laurel Imlay. "Everybody invited us into their house and offered us something to drink. It was assumed that we wouldn't stand on the stoop."

At 4pm, everyone gathered back at Wesley Temple Methodist Church for a supper and a debriefing. What happen next was one of those rare moments of transformation; when barriers fall and new life emerges.

People returned with stories of common struggle, of new understanding and mutual respect, of a desire to move forward to change the way business is done on the Eastern Shore. These stories were told with laughter and joy and occasionally tears. "Today has renewed by faith in democracy," said Jan Graham of the Haztrak Coalition (the Maryland Chapter's partner in the rural outreach work.) "I had gotten so cynical. Now I have hope."

"I realized, I think for the first time, that the environment is important to everyone," said Stephanie Smack of Snow Hill. "I used to think of the environment as something white people worried about. But we all need clean water and clean food. I'm glad we are working together."

Bill Newman and Stephanie Smack, Register a new voter in Canbridge

Sierra Club members came away with a new understanding of the experience of African-Americans. "It's a group that has been disenfranchised," said Laurel Imlay of the Southern Maryland Sierra Club Group. "I understand why young people didn't want to register. They didn't think their vote would make any difference."

At one point, David Barnes, a contract poultry grower with eight chicken houses under contract with two different integrators stood up and said,"I didn't really want to come here today. I worked hard all week and I was tired. But then I met Sylvia (pointing to an elderly African-American women sitting next to him). Here she is fighting cancer, struggling with chemotherapy. She was determined to do this in spite of all her troubles. It made me realize my troubles weren't so bad, that this was worth doing. That this was something I had to do." And then he bent over and kissed Sylvia on the forehead. The room erupted with applause.

"Something important began here today, " said Edward Lee of the Circle of Leaders. "When people, who have been excluded from the decisionmaking that effects their lives, join hands and work together...things will change."

The work of the ad hoc coalition continues. Two candidate forums have been scheduled for September 3rd (Snow Hill) and September 8th (Berlin). And plans for a coordinated legislative program for the next General Assembly are being developed.

"It's an old truth," said Chris Bedford, Chair of the Maryland Sierra Club. "We can accomplish more things together than alone. We need to take it one step at a time. But I believe this work will benefit our fight for the environment in the next General Assembly."

For more information on the Eastern Shore rural outreach campaign, contact Chris Bedford at 301-779-1000.