Everybody has a passion, and most high schoolers would not claim politics as theirs. Marissa Pittman (9) is not one of these students. From an early age, she watched CNN and listened to the news while other kids were watching cartoons and Disney. Pittman loves to attend local political events and makes a point to always be informed about current politics. She recently started paying more attention to not just the politicians and government figures at the events she was attending but also the other attendees. The participants were mostly older people, and she realized that there weren’t any girls her age that were attending.
“I noticed that a lot of girls my age and that looked like me weren’t being represented in Tennessee politics,” Pittman said “They weren’t there at the different political events I went to.”
Instead of just making this observation and moving on, Pittman decided that she was going to be the one to make a change.
LITE Memphis has a program that allows students to come up ideas to help the community. If one student’s idea was most popular that person gets funding to start up an organization. Pittman was in this program when she came up with the idea for Pumps and Politics 901.
“About an hour before I had to present my idea…I was talking to my Grandma, and she said, ’Why don’t you call it pumps?’” Pittman said. “So I decided on Pumps and Politics.”
Pumps and Politics 901 aims to involve minority girls in local politics. Pittman wants to inform minority girls about politics and invite them to attend local events through empowerment and growing familiarity with politics.
“I’ve been trying to get girls to put their feet in the water [of politics],” Pittman said.
Pumps and Politics 901 has a social media presence that lets followers know what is going on in the media concerning the government and informs them about events like the one Pumps and Politics is presenting April 8. London Lamar, President of Tennessee Young Democrats, and Councilwoman Patrice Robinson will be speaking to young women of color from 9:00 am – 10:30 am at Memphis City Hall.
Pittman hopes to plan more events like this in the future and reach a lot of young girls potentially interested in politics and those who haven’t been introduced to it much. She wants it to eventually become a “brick and mortar” program that hosts camps and bigger events for young girls to attend to help them understand more about politics. For now, Pittman is just trying to get the word out and plant seeds for her program in different social circles. If you are a young woman of color, you should check out Pumps and Politics 901 on instagram @pumpspolitics901 or contact Marissa Pittman.