Drew Wilson
The activist behind the successful push to restore voting rights to Florida felons has made Fast Company magazine’s 2019 list of “Most Creative People.”
Desmond Meade is president of the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition, and, in the 2018 election cycle, he chaired the political committee Floridians for a Fair Democracy, which sponsored the rights restoration ballot amendment.
The measure, which appeared on the ballot as Amendment 4, was approved by 65 percent of voters, expanding voting rights to an estimated 1.5 million Floridians.
Before the amendment’s approval, Florida was one of just three states with a “lifetime voting ban for people with felony convictions,” according to the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law.
“As president of the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition, Meade spent most of the previous two years giving speeches, appearing on late-night talk shows, and helping to collect more than 760,000 signatures to get Amendment 4 in front of voters,” Fast Company said.
“A former Army pilot and himself an ex-felon, Meade secured a law degree from Florida International University in 2014, but state law would not allow him to sit for the bar exam. Instead, he put his legal literacy to use as the head of FRCC, where he secured the support of the ACLU and the Open Philanthropy Fund — founded by Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz — for Amendment 4.
“Despite the initiative’s passing, Meade and the FRCC will now be focusing their efforts on fighting the obstacles that Florida’s Republican-led Legislature is working to place between ex-felons and the voting booth, including a requirement that full restitution be paid before voting rights are restored.”
The magazine’s list includes 100 individuals from across the country, with Meade taking the No. 12 spot. The issue with the 2019 list features comedian and talk-show host Seth Meyers — their No. 7 pick — on its cover.
The publication says it selects people who are “having a genuine, positive effect on the world by doing something no one’s ever done before.” Those selected must also be people who have never been profiled in the magazine before.
“Each accomplishment must be wholly unprecedented, yielding a demonstrable impact. These visionaries work in every industry imaginable, from AI to fashion to primatology,” Fast Company says.
The magazine’s full 2019 “Most Creative People” list is available online.
The accolade isn’t the first for Meade, who adorned the cover of Time magazine when it published its 2019 list of the 100 “most influential” people.
