Martin Luther King’s Namesake Son, Granddaughter Call for Voting Rights Protections as Thousands March In D.C. on 58th Anniversary of the March on Washington

An estimated 50,000 people marched in Washington, D.C., on Saturday. Aug. 28, to protest against a wave of legislation voting rights advocates say will restrict voters’ rights.

Protesters also marched in cities across the country for voting rights 58 years after Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. led 250,000 people on the historic March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.

King’s son Martin Luther King III and other activists attended the march at the nation’s capital on Saturday, calling on the federal government to protect voting rights.

Theodore Dean, who marched in D.C. in 1963 with King, also participated in the demonstration.

“I’m here because I’ve got grandchildren and children,” the 84-year-old told the Guardian.

Since January, 48 states have introduced a combined 389 bills that “amount to shameful, outright voter suppression,” the March On for Voting Rights website says.

According to the Brennan Center’s July 2021 Voting Laws Roundup, at least 18 states have enacted 30 laws restricting the right to vote.

The laws make mail voting and early voting more difficult, impose harsher voter ID requirements, and make faulty voter purges more likely.

“This wave of restrictions on voting — the most aggressive we have seen in more than a decade of tracking state voting laws — is in large part motivated by false and often racist allegations about voter fraud,” the Brennan Center said.

This past weekend’s march was organized by Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network and 180 partner organizations, and calls for the Senate to pass the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act of 2021. 

Read the full article in Atlanta Black Star.