WASHINGTON—Each year, the birthday of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. commemorated with marches, services and speeches. But Monday’s annual peace walk across the Frederick Douglass Memorial Bridge had an additional goal: to get the Senate to pass new voting rights legislation.
The holiday fell a day before the Senate returns to debate what is expected to be a doomed attempt to pass the legislation. Despite the almost certain defeat, voting rights activists, Democratic officials and relatives of Dr. King that they didn’t give up.
“I hope they do the right thing tomorrow,” said DaMareo Cooper, co-chair of the Center for Popular Democracy, a progressive advocacy group. “But if not, expect to hear from our communities. Expect this is not just something you can do and hide behind the filibuster.
He added: “We are watching. We will be on the street. We will protect our rights.”
Speakers at a news conference after the march sharply criticized Senate members and President Biden for failing to implement voting reforms for focusing on other Democratic priorities — and for eradication of voters’ rights by Supreme Court rulings. and laws passed by Republican state legislators that make it harder for people of color to vote.
“We’ve seen what President Biden and the Senate Democrats can do if they commit,” said Arndrea Waters King, the president of the Drum Major Institute — a liberal policy group — and wife of Martin Luther King III, the eldest son of dr. . King. “They have introduced a landmark bill that will improve our country’s infrastructure,” she said, referring to the $1 trillion infrastructure package signed in November.
Other speakers at the event had sharp words for two centrist Democrats, Senators Joe Manchin III of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, who say they support the legislation but have rejected a filibuster review that would allow Democrats to pass the bill. to pass bill with votes from their caucus only.
“History will not remember them kindly,” King said, recounting his father’s criticism of the “white moderate who is more committed to order than to justice.”
He added that Dr. King “was surrounded by people telling him to wait until a more convenient time and use more pleasant methods.”
“Fifty-nine years later,” continued Mr. King, “it’s the same old song and dance.”
The legislation proposed in the Senate would combine two separate bills already passed by the House: the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. The bills aim, among other things, to overturn restrictions imposed in Republican-led states and restore parts of the voting rights law that had been weakened by the Supreme Court.
Washington Mayor Muriel E. Bowser and Democratic lawmakers in the House — including California Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Ohio Representative Joyce Beatty, the chair of the Congressional Black Caucus — appeared with the King family and voting rights activists to advocate for approval of the measure in the Senate.
Becky Pringle, the president of the National Education Association, the nation’s largest union, also spoke in support of the legislation. Ms. Pringle has used her position in the union to promote racial equality measures.
Noting that all Democratic members of Congress support the voting rights bill, Ms. Pelosi said that “in a sense it’s just the filibuster” that’s blocking its passage.
She added, “If you really, really want to honor Dr. King, don’t dishonor him by using congressional custom as an excuse to protect our democracy.”
Vice President Kamala Harris also spoke briefly about the Senate deadlock during a brief appearance at Martha’s Table, a Washington food charity, as she packed groceries as part of a service event on Monday.
Understand the struggle for voting rights in the US
Why is voting rights a problem now? In 2020, as a result of the pandemic, millions of people have embraced voting in person or by mail, especially among Democrats. Spurred on by Donald Trump’s false claims about mail ballots in hopes of undoing the election, the GOP has pursued a host of new voting restrictions.
“As I’ve said before, there are a hundred members of the United States Senate,” Ms. Harris said when asked about Mr. Manchin and Ms. Sinema. “And I’m not going to acquit any of them.”
Mr. Biden, who spent the holiday weekend in Wilmington, Del. had no scheduled appearances before returning to Washington in the evening. But in a short, pre-recorded speech posted on Twitter before the march began, the president linked the drive for new voting rights legislation with the legacy of Dr. king.
“It’s not enough to praise him,” Mr. Biden said of Dr. king. “We must commit to his unfinished work, to deliver jobs and justice, to protect the sacred right to vote, the right from which all other rights flow.”
“The attack on our democracy is real,” the president added. “From the January 6 uprising to the onslaught of Republican anti-voting laws in a number of states. It’s no longer just about who gets to vote; it’s about who gets to count the vote, and whether your vote counts at all.”
The King family and other activists and lawmakers recounted moments from the country’s civil rights history to support their calls for reform and warn of what they believe would be the consequences of failure: a decline in civil rights and a new generation of colored voters who have less rights than their parents. They even raised the specter of violence, such as the brutality that took place in Selma, Ala., on Bloody Sunday.
“We’re on that precipice again,” said Alabama Representative Terri A. Sewell, a Democrat whose district includes Selma.
“This is our mountain moment,” she added. “Shall we give up? To spend? Or shall we continue?”