Edited by Azizi Powell
This pancocojams post showcases some YouTube videos of the North Carolina HBCU (Historically Black Colleges & Universities) students who marched 45 minutes to cast their ballots in the 2024 United States national midterm election. This march was in response to their failed efforts to get the county to restore their voting sites on their campuses.
This pancocojams post also documents the words to a few protest chants and one protest song that I could decipher those North Carolina HBCU students vocalizing.
The Addendum of this post presents some information about one of those chants: "Shut it down!"
The content of this post is presented for historical and socio-cultural purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to all the students who participated in this march to the polls. Thanks to all those who are quoted in this post and thanks to the publishers of these videos on YouTube.
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PART I: SHOWCASE VIDEOS
These videos are given in no particular order and are numbered for referencing purposes only.
SHOWCASE VIDEO #1- North Carolina college students march to the polls
CNN, Oct 17, 2026
Video shows hundreds of students across North Carolina’s colleges and universities, including from the largest historically black university in the country, marching to the polls after local county officials removing polling stations located on their campuses earlier this year.
https://youtube.com/shorts/lASzTbutYQ8?si=Dura0P1FqMOlasT9
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SHOWCASE VIDEO #2
https://youtube.com/shorts/S28f9F1VJpk?si=umtPEKnDaVw9Wb6P
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SHOWASECASE VIDEO #3- Students march to polls after Republicans shut down campus
sites [portion of the “No Lie” podcast]
Brian Tyler Cohen News, Oct 19, 2026 Breaking
News
Breaking: Students march to polls after Republicans shut
down campus sites.
-snip-
The portion of that podcast that refers to these students is from .01 to 5:20.
-snip-
Here's the complete reprint of this portion of that podcast' automatic transcript (with my corrections of the abbreviations for those universities).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuFvG5dMCgY
"If you watch one video today, it should be
this. This is what it looks like when the Republicans effort to suppress voting
backfires.
Those are students from North Carolina A&T,
that's an HBCU. in Greensboro walking back to campus after casting their
ballots on the first day of early voting in North Carolina.
And the only reason
they were on that march is that Republicans on the local and state election
boards decided those students didn't get a polling place on their own
campuses anymore. So here's what happened.
A&T along with UNC [University of North Carolina] - Greensboro both
had early voting sites on campus in 2024. But for this
year's midterms, 2026, the Guilford County Board of Elections, which has a
Republican majority, decided to approve an early voting plan with no sight
at either college campus. The Republican controlled state board of elections
voted 3 to2 along party lines back in January to deny A&T a voting site
and then denied the campus again in August.
And students, for their part, they
spent months fighting against it. They packed state board meetings in Raleigh.
They protested. And yet, despite all of that, of course, they were denied. So, in
spite of the effort to make it more difficult for these students to cast
ballots, instead hundreds of A&T, UNC-Greensboro, and Bennett College students marched
for about 45 minutes in 85° degree heat to the nearest early voting site at Union
Square and then 45 minutes back. It was reported that more than 300 votes
were cast at that site that day. And that one organizer said that some students
waited 3 hours to vote.
And I get that there are going to be people who say,
"Look how great it is that that these students overcame those those
obstacles and were still able to make their voices heard."
And that's true. But at the same
point, how bleak is it that what Republicans are doing right now is creating three-hour waits for the right to
vote all on purpose by the people who run the election?
Now, interestingly,
when state board members were asked to explain their decision, they cited a bunch
of excuses. They talked about proximity to the polls, parking, administrative
concerns. One member at the January meeting asked in effect whether
people could just park on campus without a pass. Would that pose an issue?
But
here's the problem with that explanation: When this came up for
Western Carolina University, that's another campus site uh on the chopping
block. A county board member told the state board that closing it
wouldn't save any money and would quote create barriers to voting for young
rural residents.
So that's what this is. This wasn't a budget fight. It's not a
parking problem. This is about making sure that likely Democratic voters would
have a tougher time while likely Republican
voters wouldn't.
And let's be clear, this is a pattern. Last month, we covered Tarant County, Texas, where
Republican commissioners voted 3 to2 to shut down 92 polling places ahead of
the midterms. So same playbook,
different state. Their goal is to make the polling place harder to reach and
hope that enough people just give up. Why?
Because they can't win on the merits. And so instead, they're doing what they
always do, which is pivoting to just preventing people from being able to cast
their ballots outright.
But here's the tragic irony. As far as the Republicans
are concerned, their efforts to suppress the vote are very clearly backfiring.
On the first day of early voting in North Carolina, more than 201,000 people
voted in person. That's according to the state board of elections. in 2022. So the
last midterm cycle, that number was 137,000. So this is a 47% jump from one
midterm cycle to the next. Registered Democrats outvoted registered Republicans
by nearly 28 points. In 2024, that
advantage for for Democrats was two points. So this is a massive swing to the left. Registered Republican
turnout was actually down from 2022. And 94 of the state's 100 counties saw
higher first day turnout than 4 years ago.
Now, it's worth noting that this march that we're talking about here obviously
wasn't solely responsible for the huge numbers considering early voting
was up everywhere across the state. But here's what the numbers do tell you.
The students who were supposed to give up and stay home didn't. They walked
and they made their way to the polls and they cast their ballots and they made
their voices heard. And that's the bottom line here. A county board in
Greensboro looked at a campus full of young voters, mostly black of course, and
decided to make voting harder for them. And those students answered
by showing up in even greater numbers, on foot in the heat to a site that was
an hour away. The people who built those barriers are still betting that
voters are going to quit. But these students just showed the entire country
that they won't.
If Republicans want to win over voters in North Carolina, they've
got an option that doesn't involve a long walk. They can just try winning those
students over. But until then, expect the marches to keep getting bigger."
****
PART II- PROTEST CHANTS THAT ARE HEARD IN THESE VIDEOS
Pancocojams Editor's Notes:
Some of the words to these chants are difficult to decipher. Please add and correct my attempt to document the words to these chants in the comment section to this post. Thanks!
Description: All of these chants appear have a call/response format
Here are the chants that I heard and could decipher in these showcase videos and in other online videos that I watched of that march
(given in alphabetical order)
call: "No justice!"
response: "No peace!"
**
call - [indecipherable]
response- "Shut it down!"
**
[a portion of a call and response chant]
call: "What do we want it?"
response -[indecipherable]
call- "when do we want it?"
response - "Now!"
-snip-
Other sources for the North Carolina HBCU students' chants:
from https://www.facebook.com/amy.siskind/videos/on-thursday-north-carolina-at-students-marched-an-hour-each-way-to-vote-on-the-f/3052139098451870/ "North Carolina A&T Students March to Vote After Polling"
**
"You can move our polling site but you can’t stop our vote!”
NC HBCU Students March 45 MINUTES to Vote! #HBCU #VotingRights #LamontTyson
@Lamont Tyson, Oct 17, 2026 https://youtube.com/shorts/qUR2un0Bmgk?si=fWAdLwn6ytHijV9l
ADDENDUM- Some information about the "Shut It Down" protest chant
AI Overview
"The "Shut it down" chant is a popular, direct protest slogan used across labor strikes, civil rights demonstrations, and political movements to demand an immediate halt to operations, unfair conditions, or systemic injustice.
Meaning and Purpose
Direct Action: The phrase serves as a call to halt
business-as-usual operations, symbolizing the disruptive power of organized
workers or citizens.
Escalation: It is often used as a response line in
call-and-response chants when negotiations fail or urgency needs to be
emphasized (e.g., "And if we don't get it... Shut it down!").
[…]
WGA Contract 2023
https://www.wgacontract2023.org › strike › strike-chants-...
And if we don't get it (SHUT IT DOWN) If we don't get it
(SHUT IT DOWN) Ain't no power Like the power of the union 'Cuz the power of the
union don't stop Hey ..."
-snip-
"Aint no power like the power of __" etc. is a chant that can be vocalized on its own.
-snip-
The earliest date for an example of the "Shut it down!" protest chant that AI cited was 2021. However, that protest chant could have been used before that date.
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