Overview:
Activist Natasha Atkinson is pushing for extra civic engagement and immigrant rights for Haitians throughout Michigan. From translating “Know Your Rights” supplies into Haitian Creole to a civic tour, Atkinson hopes to broaden entry, illustration and political energy within the area by way of applications.
MICHIGAN— One among Natasha Atkinson’s earliest reminiscences is of the day she attended her first protest, at age 7. Dwelling in Miami on the time, her household dressed up as they’d for church, took a jitney, a van that winds by way of Little Haiti, and met with 1000’s of different individuals downtown to decry the faulty affiliation of Haitians with the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
“To look at my grandmother, who was born in 1920, pack all of us up and inform us we’re standing exterior and we’re going to protest,” she recollects in a current interview, “meant one thing to me.”
“It woke up me to the truth that we didn’t must settle and we didn’t must be silent,” she defined. “We don’t have to cover.”
A long time later, Atkinson makes use of her voice to steer conversations with high-ranking political leaders in her advocacy for individuals most susceptible to political insurance policies. After incomes her grasp’s diploma from Michigan State and holding quite a few political roles, together with serving as an Obama marketing campaign campus organizer in 2008, Atkinson is a pacesetter in neighborhood activism.
Today, she evokes the mindset her grandmother cultivated, paying explicit consideration to how Haitians in her state are faring. By grassroots and volunteer efforts reminiscent of translating supplies into Creole and launching a Civics 101 Tour, she hopes to drive towards extra entry, illustration and political energy for the area’s budding Haitian neighborhood.
“Whenever you consider Haitian individuals, you assume New York, Boston, Miami,” stated Atkinson, who first moved to the state due to a relationship. “Nobody is absolutely pondering of the Haitian of us within the Midwest.”
By her function as chief of workers for Michigan State Consultant Emily Dievendorf, Atkinson grew to become related to the native ACLU. She seen then that sources and pamphlets for immigrant communities have been translated into Arabic and Spanish, however not Creole.
Along with her neighborhood high of thoughts, Atkinson started working to get these sources translated into Haitian Creole.
She took her advocacy a step additional, serving because the political motion chair for the Lansing NAACP to encourage youthful individuals to take part in civic life.
“I shared my imaginative and prescient of transferring the department to an enticing degree of political advocacy,” stated the NAACP’s department President Harold Pope.
This previous election 12 months, with the assistance of Atkinson, they delivered on this promise. Based on Atkinson, 15% of registered voters went to the polls within the 2021 native elections. In the latest election, 22% of registered voters confirmed up.
In 2024, she helped arrange the most important voter registration occasion within the tri-county space, together with “Souls to the Polls” and the Karaoke Kickback “Get Out and Vote Version.”
“Natasha doesn’t simply present up for ‘Souls to the Polls’ – she makes it occur,” stated Khadija Erickson, housing chair of the Lansing NAACP department. “She’s the individual coordinating rides, recruiting volunteers, and holding the vitality excessive from the primary canvass to the final voter who walks out of the polling place. She makes certain our occasions are joyful and welcoming, with music, meals, and a way of celebration round our proper to vote.”
“As a single mother, as somebody who’s labored a number of jobs,” says Atkinson, who has 4 kids. “I acknowledge politics generally takes a backseat, [but] we can not afford to not concentrate.”
Since January 2025, Atkinson has devoted most of her time to empowering Haitians residing in Michigan. About 5,000 name the state dwelling, in line with an MLive report referencing census knowledge — a 40 % improve from 5 years in the past.
Below the present administration, the neighborhood is navigating mass deportation insurance policies being carried out nationwide. ICE arrests in Michigan increased 154% since January 2025, affecting immigrants throughout the board. ICE raids have brought on staffing shortages in meatpacking plants and factories. Even minors have been detained, main some mother and father not to drop off their children at school.
Given the local weather, Atkinson is working to empower these affected, beginning with educating the neighborhood their fundamental rights. As of November, she was getting ready to launch a Civics 101 tour, in collaboration with the Voter Access for All Coalition, to tell Black residents and immigrant communities about how the political course of operates on the native and nationwide ranges.
“As soon as a insurgent rouser, all the time a insurgent rouser,” Atkinson declared, summing up her path in social activism from childhood to outstanding native activist.