Civil rights leaders announce ‘March on Washington’ to defend voting rights
By Bianca Flowers
CHICAGO, July 14 (Chicago) — Civil rights leaders on Tuesday announced plans for a march on Washington to defend voting rights, saying recent court decisions weaken key federal protections against racial discrimination in voting.
The coalition, led by the Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network and joined by Martin Luther King III, Arndrea Waters King, and labor and civil rights groups, will host the “March on Washington 2026: Defend the Vote” march on Aug. 28. This march will mark the 63rd anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom and Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech.
Organizers said they hope to use the event to pressure lawmakers and rally a backlash against the erosion of voting protections.
The campaign focuses on the Supreme Court’s April decision that weakened Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, a key provision used to challenge voting laws and electoral maps that discriminate on the basis of race or weaken the voting power of minorities. Organizers said the decision intensified the long-running fight over Black political representation.
Some Republicans defended the court’s decision, arguing that race-conscious redistricting was unconstitutional.
But Sharpton underscored the dangers civil rights advocates see surrounding the court’s decision, calling the decision “a bullet in the heart of the voting rights movement.” The march follows the Wall Street demonstration that drew hundreds of people to midtown Manhattan last year to protest corporate America’s retreat from diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives under pressure from the Trump administration.
“Defending voting means defending the foundation of our democracy,” Martin Luther King III said in a statement. “Sixty-three years after my father stood at the Lincoln Memorial, we are called to march again, not just in remembrance but in action.”
The coalition includes the “Drum Major Institute, American Federation of Teachers, American Federation of Government Employees, NAACP, National Council of Negro Women, National Urban League, League of United Latin American Citizens, and Working Families Party.” U.S. Rep. Yvette Clarke, a New York Democrat who chairs the Congressional Black Caucus, is expected to attend along with other members of Congress, organizers said in a statement.
(Bianca Flowers in Chicago; Editing by Kat Stafford and Edmund Klamann)
