HIP-HOP SUMMIT ACTION NETWORK AND AMERICA COMING
TOGETHER LAUNCH NATIONAL GET OUT THE VOTE (GOTV) TOUR

HIP-HOP FREEDOM RIDERS GET ON THE BUS TO MOBILIZE
YOUNG PEOPLE TO VOTE NOVEMBER 2ND

NEW YORK, N.Y. -SEPTEMBER 28, 2004- In a national
effort to increase youth voter turnout in the upcoming
presidential election on November 2nd, the Hip-Hop
Summit Action Network (HSAN) and America Coming
Together (ACT) are launching a month-long 10-state
Hip-Hop Team Vote GOTV Tour on October 1 from
Washington, D.C.

In the wake of an unprecedented increase in youth
voter registration, particularly in urban and minority
communities in states that are predicted to be
determinative in the outcome of the election, two tour
buses with hip-hop celebrities, artists, DJs and
activists will travel for the next 33 days through 26
cities in 10 states to mobilize young voters. The
Hip-Hop Team Vote GOTV Tour is styled after the
Freedom Rides of the 1960s, where young people got on
the bus to challenge the denial of the right to vote.

The tour will be officially launched at a news
conference at the National Press Building on 14th
Street in NW Washington, DC on Friday, October 1, at
noon. Two buses will begin the tour from the National
Press Building at 1p.m. One tour bus will head to
states throughout the Midwest and the other will
travel to the South, culminating in Florida.

In the face of the national question, “Will young
people and, more specifically, the hip-hop community,
turn out to vote?”, the Hip-Hop Summit Action Network
and America Coming Together are committed to using the
powerful influence of hip-hop culture to make sure the
answer to that question is a resounding yes. The
Hip-Hop Team Vote GOTV Tour will hold bus stop
rallies, GOTV training sessions, community canvassing,
town hall meetings and university campus mobilization
events, which will support audio and video PSA
messages and a grass roots campaign involving the
participation of BET, MTV and urban radio stations in
each market. In true hip-hop fashion, there will be
DJs at each of the rallies and hip-hop street teams
advancing each city distributing GOTV literature.

The Hip-Hop Team Vote GOTV Tour is being made
possible by the support of America Coming Together
(ACT).

“During the last three years, more than 12 million
young people have registered to vote,” emphasized Dr.
Benjamin Chavis, President/CEO of HSAN. “It is our
goal to make sure more than 20 million young voters
actually go out to the polls in record numbers on
November 2nd.”

Added Jeff Johnson, Vice President of HSAN, “In
conjunction with our many partners, we have been able
to successfully complete a historic youth voter
registration campaign. This tour aggressively allows
us to transition into addressing voter education,
voter mobilization and the essential voter protection
to make sure every young person that goes to the polls
has their vote counted.”

“We’re proud to partner with the Hip-Hop Summit Action
Network on this historic bus tour,” said ACT national
field director Patrick Gaspard. “By taking our message
directly to people in their communities, and with the
commitment of these hip-hop artists and activists, we
can help increase participation in the political
process to record levels.”

Additional organizations supporting The Hip-Hop Team
Vote GOTV Tour include Voices For Working Families,
Citizen Change, Voice Your Choice, Rock The Vote and
local branches of the NAACP.

The Hip-Hop Team Vote GOTV Tour route is as follows:


Midwest Tour:

October 1 (National Bus Tour Launch)Washington, DC

October 1 Cincinnati, OH

October 2 Columbus, OH

October 3 Cleveland, OH

October 4 Dayton, OH
October 5, 6 Cleveland, OH

October 7, 8, 9 Columbus, OH

October 10 Toledo, OH

October 10, 11 Detroit, MI

October 12, 13, 14 Milwaukee, WI

October 14,15 Minneapolis, MN

October 15 Des Moines, IA
October 16,17, 18, 19 St. Louis, MO

October 20, 21, 22 Kansas City, MO

October 23 Columbia, MO

October 23 Jefferson City, MO

October 23, 24, 25, 26 St. Louis, MO

October 27, 28 Kansas City, MO

October 29, 30, 31, November 1, 2 (Election Day)
Philadelphia, PA

Southern Tour:

October 1 (National Bus Tour Launch) Washington D.C.

October 1 Durham, NC

October 1, 2 Charlotte, NC

October 2 Atlanta, GA

October 2 Jacksonville, FL

October 2 Tallahassee, FL

October 2,3 Tampa, FL

October 4 Daytona, FL

October 5, 6 Orlando, FL

October 7 West Palm Beach, FL

October 7, 8, 9,10, 11 Miami, FL

October 12,13, 14 Orlando, FL

October 15 Opalocka, FL

October 15 Miami, FL

October 16,17,18 W. Palm Beach, FL

October 19 Gainesville, FL

October 20, 21, 22, 23 Jacksonville, FL

October 24, 25 Tallahassee, FL

October 26 St. Petersburg, FL

October 26 Tampa, FL

October 27 Ft. Lauderdale, FL

October 28, 29, 30, 31 Miami, FL

November 1, 2 (Election day) Miami, FL

About the Hip-Hop Summit Action Network (HSAN) and
America Coming Together (ACT):

HSAN:
Founded in 2001 by Chairman Russell Simmons and
President/CEO Dr. Benjamin Chavis, the Hip-Hop Summit
Action Network (HSAN) is a non-profit, non-partisan
national coalition of artists, entertainment industry
leaders, education advocates, civil rights proponents
and youth leaders united in the belief that the
“hip-hop” phenomena is an enormously influential agent
for social change which must be responsibly and
pro-actively utilized to fight the war on poverty and
injustice.

ACT:
Unprecedented in scale and strategy, ACT is building
the largest voter mobilization effort in the history
to elect progressive candidates to federal, state and
local offices in November.

For more information on the Hip-Hop Team Vote GOTV
Tour, go to hsan.org or www.act04.com.