Last week, the Obama campaign held a national teleconference with reporters to announce the National Barbershop and Beauty Salon Voter Registration Campaign launched the first weekend of August at the Bronner Bros. International Hair Show in Atlanta.

Actress Kerry Washington, national co-chair of the Obama Vote for Change advisory committee, and actor Blair Underwood, an Obama supporter, along with Obama senior advisor Rick Wade, participated in the call to discuss the importance of increased voter registration in the African-American community and future efforts with the B&B program.

There are currently more than eight million Black Americans across the nation who are not registered to vote, representing 32 percent of eligible Black voters. In the spirit of meeting people where they live, the Barbershop and Beauty Salon initiative is just one of the innovative ways the Obama campaign is working to increase voter participation this fall. People interested in getting more information on the program can use their cell phones to text “barber” or “beauty” to 62262 (OBAMA).

“Senator Obama clearly recognizes the importance of reaching out to people across this country wherever they are to engage them in this conversation about hope and changing the course of this country,” Wade said. “Included in that outreach, he recognizes the importance of barbers and beauticians to the tradition of empowerment in the African-American community. Barbershops and beauty salons, as we all know, are places in our community where boys grow up and become men, where women can go and become queens. It’s where news of challenges and inspirations, about obstacles and celebrations are exchanged. It’s where conversation takes place in the African-American community, and it’s also a traditional site for serious discussion about politics and issues of civic responsibility.

“Our campaign’s success during the primary season was driven not just by community organizers and traditional campaign activists,” Wade continued. “It was also driven by barber shops and beauty salons, by their owners and stylists becoming engaged in this process, this conversation across America. The barber and beauty industry leaders have worked to register votes, to elevate political enthusiasm and to help carry Senator Obama’s vision for change across this country.”

Wade said the campaign is asking beauty salon and barber shop owners to assist in this effort in a number of ways including inviting a campaign representative to visit these shops to tell Obama’s story and share a video about the candidate, to make voter registration forms available to their clientele and to pass on information and updates obtained by texting the Obama campaign with their customers.

“This is a critical undertaking that is reaching unregistered voters where they are,” Wade said.

Kerry Washington, who campaigned in salons and other venues for Obama during the primaries, said, “I think that what our beauty shops and barber shops have always meant in our community is a place where we can really be who we are, become the best of who we can be, and communicate with members of our own community about the things that are important to us.”

“This is such a tremendously important effort,” Washington added. “In this election cycle, the Black community can truly close the gap like never before. Unregistered voters can play a critical role - not only in states like Florida and North Carolina. We can actually make the difference in states like Nevada and Ohio - battleground states that we absolutely need this time around.

“What’s been so exciting for me about the beauty and barber shop campaign… is the fact that there is nothing as important to me as the time I spend in beauty shops and barber shops because that is where I feel like I’m really connecting with people. …That’s what our beauty shops and barbershops have always meant in our community. It’s a place where we can really be who we are and become the best of who we can be and communicate with members of our own community about the things that are important to us.”

At the Bronner Bros. show, more than 700 stylists from across the country signed up to participate in the program, which engages community-based barbershops and beauty salons to encourage their customers to register to vote. The Obama campaign has scheduled three cities for canvasses the weekend of August 9 in Atlanta, Detroit and Jacksonville, Florida - cities with large African- American populations where a higher turnout in November could make the difference in those states. While the program is underway in all 50 states, more cities will be targeted for canvassing by Obama staffers in the weeks ahead.

Clients who complete a voter application form at the shop can leave it in a drop box at that location. An Obama contact will retrieve the applications and turn them in to the proper authorities. The program will be adjusted to accommodate varying laws in each state.

“We all know how important barbershops and the beauty salons have been in our lives. If we can’t get to the church, we talk about religion and family and live and everything that affects us and our community. …Our therapy has either been the church or the barbershops and beauty salons. It’s grass-roots like nothing else,” Blair Underwood said. “The experience that many of us have had in the beauty salon or barbershop has shaped us into who we are today.”

Corey Ealons, the Obama campaign communications director, said he expects the Black Press to continue to play an integral role in Senator Obama’s campaign as it enters the final stretch of the 2008 presidential race.

“We are absolutely committed to using African-American media as a means to communicate our message throughout the rest of this campaign because the African-American community is critically important to our efforts this fall,” he said.

The Louisiana Weekly asked how changes in voter identification laws in some states will impact the Obama campaign’s voter registration campaign and subsequent voter education and mobilization efforts.

“It’s our intent to make sure that newly registered voters and voters who are re-registering understand and know what the voter ID laws are in any given state,” Wade said. “That is part of our training strategy with these barbers and beauticians, it’s part of the training, outreach and communication that will be done by our state staff and other entities who will be reaching out to these barber shops and beauty salons. We will make sure that they convey the importance of knowing the voter ID laws, what forms of ID they need to take with them as they actually go to vote in November. That is a very important component of this program that we intend to emphasize.”

Throughout the primary, the Obama campaign registered more than half a million voters, and has made educating citizens about their rights and responsibilities as participants in America’s rich democracy a priority.

PLANS to change a Colne house into a beauty and holistic salon have been submitted to Pendle Council.

Mrs C. Rowlands has proposed a change of use for the second and third floors of a Keighley Road property.

The application will go to a meeting of Colne and District Committee if three or more objections are made, or a councillor sees reason to discuss the plans at a public meeting. Otherwise, planning officers using delegated powers will decide on the plans.