Bob Hall

Bob Hall

Bob Hall has spent the last three decades focused on voting rights and improving our state’s political process, primarily through Democracy North Carolina, a nonpartisan organization that combines research, organizing and advocacy to increase voter participation and decrease the influence of money in politics. With his colleagues, the organization co-led coalitional efforts to win same-day registration for voters, landmark ethics reforms, public campaign financing programs, pre-registration for teenagers, “Souls to the Polls” Sunday voting, and expanded campaign finance disclosure laws.

Hall became involved in the Southern Freedom Movement in the 1960s and went on to help textile workers, coal miners, and other workers and community groups organize effective campaigns against abusive corporations. He was also the founding editor of Southern Exposure, the magazine of the Institute for Southern Studies, where he worked for 25 years. His writings include Who Owns North Carolina, Environmental Politics: Lessons from the Grassroots, and The Democracy Index. He has served on numerous nonprofit boards and governmental commissions, provided expert testimony in court cases, and received honors from the NC NAACP, ACLU, and others.

Hall and his siblings grew up in central Florida, raised by a single mother who was a church secretary and choir soloist. He went to college in Memphis and earned an MA in New York City while driving a taxi. He is married to artist Jennifer E. Miller; their daughter Cecelia is an opera singer.