Listen to Ilir Zherka
Get the Flash Player to see this player.
Photo Gallery
Ilir Zherka
Executive Director
DC Vote
Ilir Zherka says that as a child he felt "as comfortable holding a picket sign as he did a Popsicle stick." The son of Albanian immigrants who left their country in pursuit of democracy and a better life, Zherka came from a long line of community activists. His grandparents resisted the Italian Fascist occupation of WWII. Zherka's father, an elevator operator by day, transformed by night into a charismatic community leader, committed to the fight to secure the rights of Albanians in the former Yugoslavia. Zherka accompanied his father on demonstrations at the United Nations and got his first taste for social activism.
Living in New York's South Bronx, Zherka was acutely aware of the troubling dividing line separating rich from poor. His youth was challenging; he had spotty grades in school and a peer group that included several who went to prison, took drugs, or died young. Yet Zherka was able to beat the odds through a state program for disadvantaged kids that allowed him to attend college. He followed undergraduate work with law school.
His interest in the importance of social actions in achieving change grew. Zherka remained active in Albanian rights (helping to create the National Albanian American Council and launching a leadership training program for Kosovo women) and gained policy experience working in Congress on labor issues, civil rights, and foreign affairs.
Zherka's passion for civil rights turned to the District of Columbia when he arrived in the area after law school and learned of the disenfranchisement of its citizens. "I was mad at my education, that there was no mention of this in anything we learned," he says. "Here I was a political science major and I never knew that DC's residents didn't have voting rights. We are taught so little about our nation's capital -- the capital of the free world!"
Since 2002 Zherka has been executive director of DC Vote, a nonprofit dedicated to securing full voting rights for the residents of the District of Columbia, where he has been largely responsible for the organization's dramatic growth and development. Under Zherka's leadership, his staff, board, and collaborators approached their advocacy strategy in two significantly different ways than in previous attempts.
First, Zherka seized the opportunity to demonstrate that the lack of voting rights in the nation's capital is not just a local story, but a civil rights story of national significance. He and his staff worked hard with lawmakers from both parties; they developed a strong coalition of partners who had worked on other major legislative successes, and built its membership from five to more than 60. Then, they focused on a plan of action that concentrated efforts on the House of Representatives before the more difficult Senate push.
In spite of the recent Senate vote refusing consideration of the issue from the Senate floor, the momentum is still building for DC voting rights. Under Zherka's leadership DC Vote will continue to step up to the plate and deliver. "It seems ironic that this county that I love could allow such a denial of democracy in its capital," he says. "We're in the ballgame. The fight is on."