Activists are registering voters at 'Black Panther' screenings for #WakandaTheVote

#WakandaTheVote for 2018.
 By 
Heather Dockray
 on 
Activists are registering voters at 'Black Panther' screenings for #WakandaTheVote
= Credit: alberto e. rodriguez/Getty Images for Disney

It's rare that blockbuster movies do anything to move culture forward besides make people really annoying on Twitter.

Ben Shapiro rants aside, Black Panther is a lovely exception. Activists Kayla Reed, Jessica Byrd and Rukia Lumumba from the Movement for Black Lives' Electoral Justice Project recently launched #WakandaTheVote to help register voters at Black Panther screenings across the country.

"This weekend we wanted to meet our people in Wakanda," the activists told Blavity. "We know that for some it's a superhero world, but we know that the world we deserve is still waiting to be built — and we want to build it! This upcoming spring and November 2018 midterm elections are an important step in building that new world, and we want to take every opportunity to engage our communities in the conversation of electoral justice."

The activists are recruiting viewers to set up voter registration drives in their community. Viewers can sign up either on Facebook or by texting 91900 to #WakandaTheVote.

According to the activists, over a 1,000 people were on the initial launch call. The reaction from folks on Twitter has been consistently euphoric, though I haven't checked Ben Shapiro's rants today.

So far, more than 40 registration drives have been set up around the country. Not all heroes wear capes, but some do run voter registration drives.

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Heather Dockray

Heather was the Web Trends reporter at Mashable NYC. Prior to joining Mashable, Heather wrote regularly for UPROXX and GOOD Magazine, was published in The Daily Dot and VICE, and had her work featured in Entertainment Weekly, Jezebel, Mic, and Gawker. She loves small terrible dogs and responsible driving. Follow her on Twitter @wear_a_helmet.

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