Family members of Martin Luther King Jr took part in protests in Washington on Monday (January 17th) demanding Congress pass suffrage reform as the United States commemorates the assassination of the rights leader civics.
The famed Reverend’s son, Martin Luther King III, spoke at the march, warning that many states « [avaient] passed laws that make[aient] voting more difficult », more than half a century after his father’s historic speeches.
Participants in Monday’s march echoed the demands made by Martin Luther King more than sixty years ago by chanting:
“What do we want? The right to vote ! When do we want it? Now ! »
“Give us the ballot”
Many carried posters printed with the image of the civil rights icon and bearing his famous appeal from 1957 “Give us the ballot”, which called on the federal government to enforce the right to vote of black Americans nationwide.
The protest was in support of the free vote law currently being considered by the Senate, passed by the House of Representatives last week.
This bill is the subject of a fierce political battle, President Joe Biden having to negotiate with two recalcitrant senators from his own Democratic party to be able to modify a rule of procedure and allow Congress to pass the law without the support of the republicans.
Joe Biden argues that the bill is key to protecting American democracy from attempts by Republicans to exclude minorities, who historically lean Democratic, from voting through a series of laws recently passed at the grassroots level. .
Martin Luther King “defended racial justice, economic justice and the freedom that enables all others: the freedom to vote”, Vice President Kamala Harris said at the White House.
Mr. Biden and Mr. Harris last week visited the crypt where Martin Luther King, assassinated in 1968 at age 39, and his wife, Coretta Scott King, are buried, in Atlanta.
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