With Special Guest Filmmaker Loki Mulholland

At 6:00 PM on Tuesday, April 16, 2024, the documentary, DYING TO VOTE, which was written and produced by Loki Mulholand, will be shown at the Tyler History Center 325 West Federal St. Following the film, there will be Q&A with the producer, Loki Mulholland.

The filming of Dying To Vote was completed in early April, 2024.
The documentary covers voter suppression in this country and individuals whose lives were taken as a result of their trying to vote or trying to register to vote. The film tells the story of Vernon Dahmer in Hattiesburg, Mississippi in the sixties when he encouraged Black people in Forrest and Lamar counties to try to register to vote. He even told people he would pay their poll tax. He and his family were attacked by the Klan in the middle of the night on January 9, 1966. The Klan firebombed their house, which burned to the ground. The family escaped, but his young daughter, Betty, was badly burned, and Vernon later died in the hospital from smoke inhalation. At the same time the Klan was attacking the Dahmer home, four of Vernon Dahmer’s sons were in the U S military protecting their country.  On Vernon Dahmer’s headstone is written his quote, “If you don’t vote, you don’t count”. His voter registration card arrived in the mail a few days after he passed away.

The film also covers the storming of the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021.

The event, which is free and open to the public is sponsored by Mahoning Valley Sojourn to the Past and the MLK Planning Committee.