Voting Rights Isn't Just a Black Issue [View all]

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But America’s memory of Jim Crow has been distorted by a political culture that pays lip service to Dr. King while forgetting his vision of a democracy that works for all Americans. From the Montgomery bus boycott to the passage of the Voting Rights Act, Dr. King was a spokesperson for the Black-led freedom movement that was determined to end Jim Crow segregation in America. But Dr. King was also clear that Black Americans did not simply want to be integrated into a burning house. They organized with a broad and diverse coalition of Americans to challenge the basic contradictions that threatened the promise of democracy for all people. The Beloved Community that Dr. King preached and organized toward wasn’t just an America where Black, white and brown could sit down in a restaurant together. It was the hope of a political system where the Black, white and brown masses could vote together for leaders who serve the common good.

Today, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce opposes both voting rights laws and living wages. They back Senators Kyrsten Sinema, Joe Manchin and their Republican colleagues in an effort to normalize the subversion of democracy and make voting rights the special interest of minority groups. But they don’t separate their money, so we surely shouldn’t separate and bifurcate our movement demands for a democracy that works for everyday people. Voting rights are about power to write policy that impacts our daily lives and power to control the purse strings of the U.S. budget and over $21 trillion in gross domestic product.

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Whatever the fate of the current legislation in the Senate, we must build a broad, multiethnic coalition to fight together for democracy in America. This is why the Poor People’s Campaign has announced plans for a Mass Poor People’s and Low Wage Workers Assembly and Moral March on Washington on June 18. However much we are able to push back against the present assault on voting rights, we need people from every race, creed and culture to unite in support of the common good and mount an historic get-out-the-vote effort this fall. No one would put this much energy into suppressing our votes if a multiethnic coalition did not have the potential to change this nation. This MLK weekend, we must resolve to do what Dr. King noted our foreparents did during Reconstruction: unite and build a great society.

https://time.com/6139456/martin-luther-king-jr-voting-rights/

This is our time. The BLM movement and the restrictions on voting rights, as well as the importance of the 2022 election, all come together this year. We must rise to the occasion. If you revere MLK let his memory be a push to get you to do something to register and get people out to vote. It’s not hard it’s empowering.