Martin Luther King Jr.’s family leads march urging lawmakers to pass federal voting rights
| AXIOS PM, January 17, 2022
2. King family urges action on voting rights |
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 March for voting rights in D.C. today. Photo: Sophia Cai/Axios
In near-freezing temperatures, nearly a thousand activists and residents from every D.C. ward joined members of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s family in a march across the Frederick Douglass Memorial Bridge to demand federal voting rights legislation. · Axios’ Sophia Cai reports that at the foot of the bridge, MLK’s 13-year-old granddaughter, Yolanda Renee King — bundled up in a black, hooded parka — banged on the sides of a wooden lectern as she led the crowd in a fiery chant: Spread the word! Have YOU all heard? All across the nation! We are going to be! A great generation!
At Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, attendees listen to Vice President Harris, speaking from the White House to the Martin Luther King Jr. Beloved Community Service. (More on the service.) · “Today, our freedom to vote is under assault,” the vice president said.
The backdrop is tomorrow’s Senate debate on voting legislation. AXIOS PM, January 17, 2022 by
The following photos are the march urging lawmakers to pass federal voting rights leads by Martin Luther King Jr.’s family
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ABC News: Martin Luther King Jr.’s family leads march urging lawmakers to pass federal voting rights
“Let the Senate hear you!” said King’s granddaughter, Yolanda Renee King.
By Briana Stewart and Rachel Scott
January 17, 2022, 6:24 PM
Voting rights take center stage on Martin Luther King Jr. Day
Martin Luther King III, along with other civil rights leaders, marched in Washington, D.C…Read More
Carlos Barria/Reuters
As voting rights legislation remains stalled in Congress, Martin Luther King Jr.’s eldest son, Martin Luther King III, and his 13-year-old granddaughter, Yolanda Renee King, were among a coalition of civil rights activists who led the annual Peace Walk in Washington on Monday to honor the legacy of the civil rights icon and demand action on voting rights.
MORE: Democrats back where they started on voting rights: The Note
“What we want is for Americans to be engaged,” King III told ABC News anchor Linsey Davis, adding that the need for federal safety guards is more urgent than ever. “This year, we are laser focused on getting the right to vote sustained and getting the right to vote empowered.”
Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images
Yolanda Renee King, granddaughter of Martin Luther King, Jr. speaks as her father Marti…Read More
MORE: Advocates launch hunger strikes, hold events throughout US to push for voting rights
The march comes as lawmakers are expected to take up a vote to change the Senate rules as early as Tuesday that encompasses both the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. If voted to proceed, it would be the first time this Congress takes up a debate on voting rights in the Senate.
Without the support of 10 Republicans needed to overcome a GOP filibuster to block the legislation, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is expected to raise rules change vote as early as Tuesday, according to a Democratic aide familiar. But with moderate Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema making clear they will not vote to end the Senate’s filibuster — even though both support the underlying legislation — the fate of the reforms that activists are demanding action on is unclear.
Elizabeth Frantz/Reuters
Martin Luther King III, the eldest son of the late civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr…Read More
“Let the Senate hear you! Let the White House hear you all! Spread the word!” said King’s granddaughter before her family led hundreds of marchers across a snow-capped Frederick Douglass Memorial Bridge.
Yolanda Renee King had sharp words for lawmakers, calling out Senators Manchin and Sinema by name.
“Sen. Sinema, Sen. Manchin, our future hinges on your decision and history will remember what choice you make. So, join me in demanding action for today, tomorrow and generations to come,” Yolanda Renee King said.
She added, “For all the elected leaders out there who are tweeting, posting and celebrating my grandfather, Dr. King, today, my message to you is simple do not celebrate, legislate!”
Manchin released a statement Monday celebrating the life and legacy of King, but made no mention of voting rights.
Carlos Barria/Reuters
Martin Luther King III, the eldest son of the late civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr…Read More
“We celebrate and honor the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., one of the most inspiring and important figures in American history. Dr. King taught us to stand up for what we believe in through civil, peaceful means to unite our nation instead of divide it,” the statement read.
When asked if Manchin’s words are enough, King III told ABC News, “First of all, I would say that, you know, it’s kind of frustrating for people to be releasing statements and you really have not totally adhered to my father’s ideals. My father not only gave his life, but he fought for the right to vote, and he and others gave their lives. And again, Sen. Manchin says he supports a bill but he won’t move or is not so far moved on a pathway to say that there’s a pathway for it.”
He added, “So my hope and my message to him would be senator, you got to go further. You can’t say, ‘I’m for something’ but don’t have a pathway to [it], and that’s anybody who’s talking about dad today, because I’m sure [there are also] many senators also on the Republican side, who ought to be ashamed of themselves, who have shut down the process for voter expansion, voter protections.”
Samuel Corum/Getty Images
Martin Luther King III and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi embrace during a press co…Read More
At least 19 states have passed new restrictive voting laws since the 2020 election. There have been 34 such new laws in total across the country, according to the nonpartisan Brennan Center for Justice, and most of them in states controlled by Republicans.
Many of the new laws, fueled by false claims of widespread election fraud by former President Donald Trump, take aim at mail-in voting, implement stricter voter ID requirements, allow fewer early voting days and limit ballot drop boxes.
MORE: Clyburn asks senators ‘which side are you on?’ for voting rights
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi joined the King family Monday for a voting rights rally at Washington’s Union Station outside Capitol Hill, where she spoke in support of expanding voter access, alongside other members of Congress and activists, including Congressional Black Caucus Chair Rep. Joyce Beatty, D-Ohio, and Rev. Al Sharpton.
Elizabeth Frantz/Reuters
Martin Luther King III, the eldest son of the late civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr…Read More
“The Congress and I give great credit to the Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer for his relentless and persistence and trying to get this done, and to the president for his leadership, but we have to get this done,” Pelosi said, before launching into an argument for changing Senate rules to make way for election reform legislation.
MORE: Sinema, Manchin rejects Biden push to change filibuster for voting rights
Mike Theiler/Reuters
Visitors walk past the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial as the sun breaks through clouds…Read More
“While it may be true to them that the filibuster is an important custom, it is not the Constitution of the United States, the truth is,” Pelosi said. “If you really truly want to honor Dr. King, don’t dishonor him by using compression of custom as an excuse for our democracy.”
Megan Varner/Getty Images, FILE
President Joe Biden delivers remarks on voting rights legislation at the Atlanta University…Read More
Beatty, following Pelosi, told the crowd of supporters, “Silence is not an option.”
“We will not yield our efforts to enshrine voting rights legislation into law, nor will we allow a filibuster to filibuster away our democracy and our voting rights,” she said.
ABC News’ Libby Cathey contributed to this report.
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Martin Luther King Jr’s family, activists urge Congress to pass voting rights legislation
Jan 17, 2022 CBS News
Family members of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. are honoring the late civil rights leader by pressing Congress to act to pass voting rights legislation. Nsé Ufot, CEO of the New Georgia Project, joins CBSN’s Tanya Rivero to discuss what’s at stake. CBSN is CBS News’ 24/7 digital streaming news service featuring live, anchored coverage available for free across all platforms. Launched in November 2014, the service is a premier destination for breaking news and original storytelling from the deep bench of CBS News correspondents and reporters. CBSN features the top stories of the day as well as deep dives into key issues facing the nation and the world. CBSN has also expanded to launch local news streaming services in major markets across the country. CBSN is currently available on CBSNews.com and the CBS News app across more than 20 platforms, as well as the Paramount+ subscription service. Subscribe to the CBS News YouTube channel: http://youtube.com/cbsnews? Watch CBSN live: http://cbsn.ws/1PlLpZ7c? Download the CBS News app: http://cbsn.ws/1Xb1WC8? Follow CBS News on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cbsnews/? Like CBS News on Facebook: http://facebook.com/cbsnews? Follow CBS News on Twitter: http://twitter.com/cbsnews? Subscribe to our newsletters: http://cbsn.ws/1RqHw7T? Try Paramount+ free: https://bit.ly/2OiW1kZ For video licensing inquiries, contact: licensing@veritone.com
Speakers at, Family of Martin Luther King Jr. hold news briefing after march for voting rights
WATCH LIVE: Family of Martin Luther King Jr. hold news briefing after march for voting rights
Streamed live on Jan 17, 2022PBS NewsHour Dr. King was 93 Today
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MLK Jr. would be ‘greatly disappointed’ by Senate inaction on voting reform, son says
Jan 17, 2022 PBS NewsHour
Monday has been a day to remember the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and also a day of calls to action on voting rights. Demonstrators marched through streets in Washington in support of voting legislation now stalled in the U.S. Senate, and Vice President Harris warned the freedom to vote is under assault. Judy Woodruff discusses the day with the King Jr.’s son, Martin Luther King III. Stream your PBS favorites with the PBS app: https://to.pbs.org/2Jb8twG Find more from PBS NewsHour at https://www.pbs.org/newshour Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://bit.ly/2HfsCD6 Follow us: Facebook: http://www.pbs.org/newshour Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/newshour Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/newshour Subscribe: PBS NewsHour podcasts: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/podcasts Newsletters: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/subscribe
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2022 King Holiday Observance – Beloved Community Commemorative Service
Streamed live on Jan 17, 2022 The Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change
The culminating program for the week-long celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s life and legacy is the 2022 Martin Luther King, Jr. Beloved Community Commemorative Service. This event will be televised locally on FOX 5 Atlanta, Monday, January 17, 2022 beginning at 10:00 A.M. EST. and live-streamed on Facebook, Youtube and thekingcenter.org.
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On the anniversary of taking office, President Biden faces challenges on all fronts and seeks to distance himself from the progressive wing of his party. The panel discussed new reporting about Chief of Staff Ron Klain, the future of voting rights and what’s to come in 2022. Watch the latest full show and Extra here: https://pbs.org/washingtonweek Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://bit.ly/2ZEPJNs Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/washingtonweek Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/washingtonweek
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. leads a march to the courthouse in Montgomery, Ala., on March 17, 1965. AP
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In 1967, at the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia, Martin Luther King spoke with NBC News’ Sander Vanocur about the “new phase” of the struggle for “genuine equality.” » Subscribe to NBC News: http://nbcnews.to/SubscribeToNBC » Watch more NBC video: http://bit.ly/MoreNBCNews NBC News is a leading source of global news and information. Here you will find clips from NBC Nightly News, Meet The Press, and original digital videos. Subscribe to our channel for news stories, technology, politics, health, entertainment, science, business, and exclusive NBC investigations. Connect with NBC News Online! Visit NBCNews.Com: http://nbcnews.to/ReadNBC Find NBC News on Facebook: http://nbcnews.to/LikeNBC Follow NBC News on Twitter: http://nbcnews.to/FollowNBC Follow NBC News on Google+: http://nbcnews.to/PlusNBC Follow NBC News on Instagram: http://nbcnews.to/InstaNBC Follow NBC News on Pinterest: http://nbcnews.to/PinNBC MLK Talks ‘New Phase’ Of Civil Rights Struggle, 11 Months Before His Assassination | NBC News
An Intimate Conversation with Martin Luther King | David Susskind Meets MLK | Timeline
Oct 19, 2021 Timeline – World History Documentaries
David Susskind’s historical, long and intimate interview with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Originally aired on June 9, 1963 by WPIX-TV New York. Among the subjects discussed were the current state of the American Civil Rights Movement and the recent (at that time) events in Birmingham, Alabama. Recently restored by the Paley Center. ? It’s like Netflix for history… Sign up to History Hit, the world’s best history documentary service and get 50% off using the code ‘TIMELINE’ http://bit.ly/3a7ambu You can find more from us on: https://www.facebook.com/timelineWH https://www.instagram.com/timelineWH Content licensed from MVD to Little Dot Studios. Any queries, please contact owned-enquiries@littledotstudios.com
Georgia Rep. John Lewis near the statue of Martin Luther King Jr. in the Capitol Rotunda in Washington, D.C., earlier this year. At StoryCorps in 2018, Lewis talked about meeting King in Montgomery, Ala., at 18.
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USA TODAY: Mobilize everyday people to fight Republican attacks on voting, just like in 1965: MLK III
The backlash is a reminder of how far we’ve come, how much we have to defend and how far we have to go. The world we want will take a lifetime of work.
Martin Luther King III
Opinion contributor
Shortly after Congress passed the Civil Rights Act in 1964, my father, Martin Luther King Jr., visited President Lyndon Johnson alongside other civil rights leaders and urged him to support the Voting Rights Act. President Johnson was reluctant. He had used up all his political capital on civil rights, he said. He had no power to push through a bill to secure the right to vote for Black Americans.
Dad and his allies weren’t giving up. Their response was to go back to the South, mobilize the people and “go get him some power.” They sparked massive mobilizations for voting rights across the South: among them the Selma to Montgomery march, immortalized on “Bloody Sunday.” In its aftermath, President Johnson introduced the Voting Rights Act, which was signed exactly 56 years ago.
Today though, the rights it enshrined are under threat from dozens of voter suppression laws being passed in states across the country. To resist them we have to understand, like Dad did, that power doesn’t just come from a single election, or negotiations in the Senate. It comes from us: everyday people who demand justice and equality in America.
We won’t stop demanding justice
I was reminded of this last week, as my wife, Arndrea, and I joined the Rev. Al Sharpton and Texas Democrats in meetings on Capitol Hill. We asked members and senators to fight to pass the For the People Act and the the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act to protect the sanctity of our votes. We demanded equal congressional representation for the over 700,000 residents of majority Black and brown Washington, D.C. And we called on them to bypass the filibuster – that old Jim Crow relic – to secure these basic constitutional rights for all Americans. The message we heard was that once again, they need the power of the people to mobilize and push Congress to pass this vital legislation.
LBJ daughters:Our dad, Lyndon Johnson, showed that civil rights could be bipartisan. Where is that now?
Later this month, when we commemorate the 58th anniversary of the March on Washington, we’ll be bringing that power to Washington and to demonstrations all over the country. Our demand is that Congress act to defend our voting rights and secure our democracy for the next generation.
For some of us, it’s discouraging to know this fight isn’t yet won. In 2020, millions of us took to the streets for the largest demonstrations in American history. We held panels and made speeches, we registered thousands of new voters, and more than 81 million of us cast our votes to sweep President Joe Biden and Democrats into the White House and Congress. Some of us will ask why, after all that, it’s still our duty to fight.
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At these moments I look back on what my mother often said, “Struggle is a never ending process. Freedom is never really won, you earn it and win it in every generation.”
She taught me that for every step forward there will always be backlash, but that it’s our duty to keep pushing forward. Less than three weeks after the 1963 March on Washington, when activists like my father were riding high on hope, a domestic terrorist bombed the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, killing four precious little girls. Still, activists stood up and organized Freedom Summer the next year, sending hundreds of volunteers to the South to register Black voters and paving the way for the Civil Rights Act.
We need courage from our leaders
Now, less than a year after Black and brown voters cast the deciding votes in the biggest election of our lives, the backlash has been swift and brutal. Republican-controlled states are creating new voting restrictions to block Black and brown people from the polls. Many are openly discussing how to break up majority-minority districts through redistricting.
In my home state of Georgia, the legislature has even given itself power to take over local elections and overturn results they dislike.
That backlash is a reminder of how far we’ve come, how much we have to defend and how far we have to go as a nation. We don’t have the luxury to sit down or leave the fight. This moment calls us instead to lift our voices and show once again that the power lies in our hands. We have to call on our leaders – Democrats and Republicans – to act with courage and moral conviction to defend our democracy. We have to demand that when they quote my father, or say they loved John Lewis, they show that love in their actions.
Don’t let rights slip away: Pass ‘Manchin Plus’ voting and election protection with or without Republicans
That will be our demand when we gather in Washington this month, and we won’t stop. The world we are called to build – one based on love, sister and brotherhood, justice and peace – will not be won in a single summer of protest or an autumn of campaigning. It will be won in a lifetime of work, fueled by the power of our conviction, and we will then be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope.
Martin Luther King III (@OfficialMLK3) is a global human rights activist and chairman of the Drum Major Institute.
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