The January 6^th insurrection at the U.S. Capitol was a strong call to action for Navdeep Jassal.

“It breaks my heart to see what’s happening in our country,” Jassal said. “So many people sacrificed their lives to win the right to vote; we can’t sit on the sidelines and watch it get taken away.”

Jassal has been a committed volunteer in Oakland, preparing and serving food for the hungry with Post co-publisher Gay Plair Cobb at First Presbyterian Church and participating with the Poor People’s Campaign and volunteering for Common Cause and local progressive candidates. She recently volunteered in the campaign of Janani Ramachandran, who will be in the runoff election for the 18^th district state assembly seat in August.

Born in Manchester, England, to Indian immigrant parents, Jassal’s family moved to Iowa where she graduated from the University of Iowa with a major in business and communication studies.

After living in San Francisco and Oakland for nearly 30 years, Jassal is getting into the thick of the fight for voting rights — in Atlanta, Ga. 

She recently left her job analyzing consumer goods for Post Consumer Brands and is heading to Georgia for the next two months to volunteer for Fair Fight Action, the organization founded by Stacey Abrams to fight voter suppression efforts and make elections more equitable. 

Of South Asian Indian heritage – like Vice President Kamala Harris — Jassal wants to help save democracy.

Why work with Stacey Abrams? “She’s tenacious and gives more than 100% in everything she does. She includes and treats all people of color with the highest level of respect,” she told the Post.

Jassal read New York Times columnist Charles Blow’s book “The Devil You Know,” to gain insights on how and why she should work shoulder-to-shoulder with Blacks and liberals who are moving to the South to continue the struggle for voting as the path to save democracy.

Her past volunteer experiences include serving as a field organizer for the Equal Rights Amendment Campaign in Iowa and as a participant with Rev. Dr. William Barber’s Poor Peoples Campaign and their Moral Mondays direct action efforts in North Carolina. 

Asked why she wanted to become a modern-day Freedom Rider, she said “I want to serve as a worker bee in the streets with communities of color.”

Her experience with public relations, fundraising, and organizing along with her skills in sales support, cross-functional collaboration and analytical background with such companies as Lucent Technologies, Clorox and Del Monte could prove to be major assets for voter participation groups.

“I know the work is going to be hard; I know the hours are going to be long, but I’ve never been so sure in my heart that I’m doing the right thing,” Jassal said.

Jassal has been introduced to some civil rights activists through connections provided by Gay Plair Cobb, who had also moved to Atlanta in 1973 to work for political progress. 

Jassal has agreed to provide reports on her volunteer mission to the Post News Group.

Christy Price

Posts by Christy Price