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Video above: House passes voting rights bill named after John LewisWhen Medgar Evers and Jimmie Lee Jackson were killed amid a yearslong battle for voting rights, it brought a sense of doom and darkness over the civil rights movement of the 1960s.Evers, an NAACP field secretary and civil rights leader who organized voter registration drives, boycotts and protests against school segregation, was shot in the back by a White supremacist in his driveway in June 1963.Jackson, a church deacon, was shot in the stomach by an Alabama State Trooper while trying to protect his mother during a march for voting rights in Marion, Alabama, in February 1965.Despite the anger and grief in the wake of their deaths, the civil rights movement pressed forward, activists and protesters kept marching and in August 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act, which prohibited racial discrimination in voting.The leaders of today's movement say they are carrying that same spirit of resilience as they lobby for Congress to pass federal voting legislation that would counter state-level laws they say are suppressing Black and brown voters.On Saturday, the March on for Voting Rights will take place in Washington DC, Atlanta, Houston, Phoenix and Miami to put pressure on the Senate to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, which increases the power of the federal government to block discriminatory election rules. The bill was passed in the House earlier this week but faces an uphill battle with the Senate given most Republicans oppose it. And on Friday, the Texas House approved a Republican voting restrictions bill after months of Democratic delays. Opponents warned that the bill would make voting harder for people of color, who often back Democrats, as well as disabled people -- in part by outlawing the all-night and drive-through voting that Houston conducted during the 2020 election.Saturday's mass mobilization will mark the 58th anniversary of the historic March on Washington where Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech. That march came just two months after Evers' death. An anniversary march was also held last year in Washington on the heels of nationwide protests following the death of George Floyd.The March On for Voting Rights comes after the arrests this summer of several civil rights leaders and lawmakers protesting voter suppression. Among them were Rev. Jesse Jackson, Rev. William J. Barber II, Cliff Albright, Rep. Hank Johnson and Rep. Joyce Beatty.The Rev. Al Sharpton, who is helping lead Saturday's march, said the deaths of Jimmie Lee Jackson and Evers taught many that the road to equality is never easy. A few weeks after Jackson was killed in 1965, John Lewis was beaten by White police officers so badly that he suffered a broken skull during "Bloody Sunday." Lewis and others marched for voting rights across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama."It's always been darkness before light broke through," Sharpton said. "We come out of that tradition."A persistent fight Civil rights icon Andrew Young said Jimmie Lee Jackson's death was actually the breaking point that led to the Selma march. Jackson, who had just returned from Vietnam, was attending his first march in Marion, Alabama with his mother and grandfather when he was shot trying to shield his mother from being beaten.Young recalled marching six miles in the freezing rain with other leaders from Jackson's funeral at a local church to the cemetery. Frustrated with Jackson's death, they began planning their next move: they were going to march from Selma to Montgomery to demand voting rights.Violence from police and White supremacists would never stop their fight, Young said."If somebody gets killed doing something right you have to send people there to take their place," Young said. "Because if you don't, you send the message that all you have to do to stop us is to kill someone."Mary Marcus, a friend of Jimmie Lee Jackson's family, said Jackson wasn't a vocal civil rights leader. He was a quiet man who mostly supported the movement behind the scenes, including taking his mother and grandfather to the march the day he was shot. Young said Jackson occasionally volunteered with voter registration efforts.Marcus said she hopes today's activists understand the battle for equality often requires sacrifice from more than just civil rights leaders, but also the foot soldiers in the background. "His (Jackson's) role was supporting those who supported the movement," said Marcus, 62 of Marion. "As a result of that when it was his turn to go to the rescue of someone else, he did. As a result of that, he lost his life."A historic victoryMonths after Jimmie Lee Jackson was slain and the Selma march happened, Congress passed the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and Johnson signed it.Young recalled going to the White House with Martin Luther King Jr. to meet with Johnson who insisted he did not have enough votes from Congress to get the bill passed.But Selma, Young said, influenced public opinion of voting rights and prompted lawmakers to support the bill. He believes today's activists can learn from the power of their organizing."We riled up the nation," Young said. "That persuaded the citizens that voting rights needed to be protected and that gave the president the power."Rev. Jesse Jackson, who was hospitalized last week for COVID-19, said in a statement that he will not be attending the march Saturday and is still receiving medical care.Jackson urged the nation to march whether in DC or at a local demonstration and pressure Congress to pass federal voting bills. He said the right to vote is key to jobs, raising the minimum wage, criminal justice reform, expanded health care and improving public education."So we want everybody to put on your marching shoes, and keep them on until everyone's right to vote is protected," Jackson said. "Keep marching and keep hope alive."Martin Luther King III, King Jr.'s eldest son who is also leading Saturday's march, said he has seen fervor in the demonstrators who rallied across the country after Floyd's death and showed up at last year's anniversary march.And while the 1963 March on Washington ultimately led to key voting rights legislation -- one of its top demands in addition to jobs and civil rights -- voter suppression efforts in recent years have been a setback, King said.Many of the tactics being used to disenfranchise Black and brown voters are "a more sophisticated form of Jim Crow," King said.King said he hopes the Saturday march sends the message that there is an urgency to rally around voting rights. He called it "frightening" that state legislatures are enacting laws that give them control over election outcomes."We are not going to just sit by idle and allow our rights to be eroded," King said. "My hope is that the community understands this is enough. We're not going to give up. "

Video above: House passes voting rights bill named after John Lewis

When Medgar Evers and Jimmie Lee Jackson were killed amid a yearslong battle for voting rights, it brought a sense of doom and darkness over the civil rights movement of the 1960s.

Evers, an NAACP field secretary and civil rights leader who organized voter registration drives, boycotts and protests against school segregation, was shot in the back by a White supremacist in his driveway in June 1963.

Jackson, a church deacon, was shot in the stomach by an Alabama State Trooper while trying to protect his mother during a march for voting rights in Marion, Alabama, in February 1965.

Despite the anger and grief in the wake of their deaths, the civil rights movement pressed forward, activists and protesters kept marching and in August 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act, which prohibited racial discrimination in voting.

The leaders of today's movement say they are carrying that same spirit of resilience as they lobby for Congress to pass federal voting legislation that would counter state-level laws they say are suppressing Black and brown voters.

On Saturday, the March on for Voting Rights will take place in Washington DC, Atlanta, Houston, Phoenix and Miami to put pressure on the Senate to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, which increases the power of the federal government to block discriminatory election rules. The bill was passed in the House earlier this week but faces an uphill battle with the Senate given most Republicans oppose it. And on Friday, the Texas House approved a Republican voting restrictions bill after months of Democratic delays. Opponents warned that the bill would make voting harder for people of color, who often back Democrats, as well as disabled people -- in part by outlawing the all-night and drive-through voting that Houston conducted during the 2020 election.

Saturday's mass mobilization will mark the 58th anniversary of the historic March on Washington where Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech. That march came just two months after Evers' death. An anniversary march was also held last year in Washington on the heels of nationwide protests following the death of George Floyd.

The March On for Voting Rights comes after the arrests this summer of several civil rights leaders and lawmakers protesting voter suppression. Among them were Rev. Jesse Jackson, Rev. William J. Barber II, Cliff Albright, Rep. Hank Johnson and Rep. Joyce Beatty.

The Rev. Al Sharpton, who is helping lead Saturday's march, said the deaths of Jimmie Lee Jackson and Evers taught many that the road to equality is never easy. A few weeks after Jackson was killed in 1965, John Lewis was beaten by White police officers so badly that he suffered a broken skull during "Bloody Sunday." Lewis and others marched for voting rights across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama.

"It's always been darkness before light broke through," Sharpton said. "We come out of that tradition."

Civil rights icon Andrew Young said Jimmie Lee Jackson's death was actually the breaking point that led to the Selma march. Jackson, who had just returned from Vietnam, was attending his first march in Marion, Alabama with his mother and grandfather when he was shot trying to shield his mother from being beaten.

Young recalled marching six miles in the freezing rain with other leaders from Jackson's funeral at a local church to the cemetery. Frustrated with Jackson's death, they began planning their next move: they were going to march from Selma to Montgomery to demand voting rights.

Violence from police and White supremacists would never stop their fight, Young said.

"If somebody gets killed doing something right you have to send people there to take their place," Young said. "Because if you don't, you send the message that all you have to do to stop us is to kill someone."

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Mary Marcus, a friend of Jimmie Lee Jackson's family, said Jackson wasn't a vocal civil rights leader. He was a quiet man who mostly supported the movement behind the scenes, including taking his mother and grandfather to the march the day he was shot. Young said Jackson occasionally volunteered with voter registration efforts.

Marcus said she hopes today's activists understand the battle for equality often requires sacrifice from more than just civil rights leaders, but also the foot soldiers in the background.

"His (Jackson's) role was supporting those who supported the movement," said Marcus, 62 of Marion. "As a result of that when it was his turn to go to the rescue of someone else, he did. As a result of that, he lost his life."

Months after Jimmie Lee Jackson was slain and the Selma march happened, Congress passed the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and Johnson signed it.

Young recalled going to the White House with Martin Luther King Jr. to meet with Johnson who insisted he did not have enough votes from Congress to get the bill passed.

But Selma, Young said, influenced public opinion of voting rights and prompted lawmakers to support the bill. He believes today's activists can learn from the power of their organizing.

"We riled up the nation," Young said. "That persuaded the citizens that voting rights needed to be protected and that gave the president the power."

JIM LO SCALZO/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

Rev. Jesse Jackson, who was hospitalized last week for COVID-19, said in a statement that he will not be attending the march Saturday and is still receiving medical care.

Jackson urged the nation to march whether in DC or at a local demonstration and pressure Congress to pass federal voting bills. He said the right to vote is key to jobs, raising the minimum wage, criminal justice reform, expanded health care and improving public education.

"So we want everybody to put on your marching shoes, and keep them on until everyone's right to vote is protected," Jackson said. "Keep marching and keep hope alive."

Martin Luther King III, King Jr.'s eldest son who is also leading Saturday's march, said he has seen fervor in the demonstrators who rallied across the country after Floyd's death and showed up at last year's anniversary march.

And while the 1963 March on Washington ultimately led to key voting rights legislation -- one of its top demands in addition to jobs and civil rights -- voter suppression efforts in recent years have been a setback, King said.

Many of the tactics being used to disenfranchise Black and brown voters are "a more sophisticated form of Jim Crow," King said.

King said he hopes the Saturday march sends the message that there is an urgency to rally around voting rights. He called it "frightening" that state legislatures are enacting laws that give them control over election outcomes.

"We are not going to just sit by idle and allow our rights to be eroded," King said. "My hope is that the community understands this is enough. We're not going to give up. "

Read this article:
'March on for Voting Rights' will take place Saturday in DC, Atlanta, Houston, Phoenix and Miami - WXII The Triad

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Democrats are pushing what may be their last chance to hold off voter suppression efforts by Republicans, and say that their control of both the House and Senate is at risk if they do not pass their new legislation to protect elections.

Their bill, which cleared the US House on a party-line vote last week, has now been taken up by a bitterly divided Senate. It would ensure that states with a recent history of voter suppression must obtain federal approval before making any changes to their election systems, while also undoing a recent supreme court decision that makes it harder to challenge laws under the Voting Rights Act.

But Democrats appear unlikely to get more than a handful of GOP votes in the Senate on the bill. They need the support of 10 Republicans to overcome the filibuster, the procedural rule requiring 60 votes to advance legislation. Just one Senate Republican, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, has said she supports reauthorizing the provision, an early signal of how difficult it will be to get Republicans to sign on at a time when state party members are pushing more voting restrictions.

Outside groups continue to escalate pressure on members of Congress to pass the bill, which is named after John Lewis, the civil rights icon. They held marches in Washington on Saturday the 58th anniversary of the historic march on Washington, where Martin Luther King Jr gave his I Have A Dream Speech.

Theodore Dean, 84, attended the 1963 march and drove 16 hours from Alabama to attend the march for voting rights in Washington on Saturday.

Im here because I got grandchildren and children, he said. He added that the fight over voting rights gets worse every year. Sometimes it feels like it goes down instead of up. My children and grandchildren need to be able to vote too.

Democrats have highlighted the importance of passing voting rights legislation since the beginning of the year, but the bill arrives in the Senate at a moment when the stakes are uniquely high. State lawmakers are currently drawing maps for electoral districts that will be in place for the next decade. Unless the bill passes, it will be the first time since 1965 certain states with a legacy of racial discrimination wont have to get their district approved before they go into effect. That could encourage state lawmakers to draw districts that make it harder for Black and other minority voters to elect the candidate of their choice, critics say.

The blockade also underscores how Democrats have not yet found a way to deal with the filibuster. Even amid loud calls to do away with the process, a handful of moderate Democrats, led by Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, have refused, holding up Democratic efforts to pass voting rights protections, among other measures.

The same people who are suppressing the vote are also using the filibuster to block living wage its not about one issue, said the Rev William Barber, a co-leader of the Poor Peoples Campaign and a civil rights leader. Anyone who tries to make this about one issue like voting rights, youre misleading the people. You have to draw this line and connect the dots.

There are also fraught political stakes for Joe Biden. Amid growing concern the White House wasnt taking the fight for voting rights seriously enough, the president gave a public speech on the topic in July. Still, White House advisers have said they believe they can out-organize voter suppression, an idea that has infuriated civil rights leaders.

You said the night you won that Black America had your back and that you were going to have Black Americas back, the Rev Al Sharpton, the civil rights leader, said at the rally in Washington on Saturday. Well, Mr President, theyre stabbing us in the back. In 49 states, theyve got their knives out stabbing us in the back.

You need to pick up the phone and call Manchin and others and tell them that if they can carve around the filibuster to confirm supreme court judges for President Trump, they can carve around the filibuster to bring voter rights to President Biden, he added.

We have a problem here. We have Republicans on one side saying the bill isnt needed, said Derrick Johnson, the president of the NAACP. And then we have far too many Democrats who lack the sense of urgency that its going to be absolutely critical to protect the rights of voters.

Republicans successfully filibustered a different voting rights measure earlier this year one that would prohibit partisan gerrymandering, as well as require same-day, automatic and online voter registration. But Derrick Johnson, the president of the NAACP, said he was confident this bill would actually pass.

I dont think were gonna have the same fate with this piece of legislation that weve seen, being stalled in the Senate. I do believe there will be the necessary political will to pass it, said Johnson, who has met with the White House and members of Congress to push for the bill. Pressed on whether he believed 10 Republicans would sign on to the bill, Johnson suggested Democrats could do away with the filibuster to pass the bill.

Im not suggesting its gonna require 10 Republicans. I am suggesting the legislation will pass, he said. I dont see a doomsday. I see a reality that voting rights protections must pass before the end of this year Our democracy will be in shambles if its not done.

A Republican filibuster of the John Lewis bill could offer Democrats wary of getting rid of the rule one of the clearest examples to date of how it has become a tool of obstruction. The last time the Senate voted to reauthorize the Voting Rights Act in 2006, it passed 98-0 before being signed by George W Bush, a Republican.

This iteration of the Voting Rights Act, this should be something that should garner bipartisan support. And if it garners none, and if theres not even a serious conversation about tweaks to get to a deal, then I think that tells us something, said Damon Hewitt, the president and executive director of the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, a group that strongly supports the bill.

It tells us that there was never really an attempt to play ball. Or, even if there was some attempt, there was just insufficient political will, he added.

Texas Democrats also heightened the stakes when they fled the state capitol last month to thwart Republican efforts to pass new sweeping voting restrictions. The Texas lawmakers spent much of the last month in Washington lobbying to pass federal voting protections. The standoff ended last week when the Texas bill passed; if Congress fails to act on its own legislation now, it could make the effort from Texas lawmakers look futile.

In Washington on Saturday at the march, there was a sense of history and an awareness of how the fight for voting rights now mirrored the struggle of the civil rights movement.

Our ancestors did these marches and did these walks and talk so this is like something that Im supposed to do, said Najee Farwell, a student at Bowie State University.

Its kind of changed but you still can see the same stuff going on. If you look at pictures back from 1950 its still the same stuff going on right now, said Jemira Queen, a fellow student.

Read more:
Democracy will be in shambles: Democrats in last-ditch effort to protect voting rights - The Guardian

And they said it wouldnt last.

After critics bet on the immediate cancelation of Rev. Al Sharptons PoliticsNation when it premiered in 2011, the civil-rights-activist-turned broadcaster got the last laugh celebrating the MSNBC shows 10-year-anniversary at an intimate bash at Rockefeller Center on Tuesday night.

Ive lasted longer than most TV hosts of shows, he told Page Six.

And, he says, Ive never missed a show in ten years! I might be the only host whos never missed a show.

Sharptons MSNBC colleagues Ari Melber, Tiffany Cross, Joy Reid, former president Phil Griffin and current president Rashida Jones, who made history as the first black woman to head a cable news network, were among the guests who came out to celebrate. Sharpton told the crowd, which also included former New York Gov. David Paterson, Democratic mayoral nominee Eric Adams, and Bevelations author Bevy Smith, that working under Jones is one of the greatest honors.

When I started in civil rights, it was not imaginable that you would have a black woman president of a major network, and to see a woman come out of a [historically black college] and take that position, and [me] growing up under Shirley Chisholm [the first black Congresswoman, for whom Sharpton campaigned], being raised by a single black mother, it really gets to me emotionally. Im so proud to see her perform at the highest level, he told us.

Sharpton was so moved by the celebration and milestone that he said, I teared up after I got home. I looked at the poster from the event, and I just had to shed a tear or two because even I didnt believe it would get this far, but thank God it has.

Excerpt from:
Rev. Al Sharpton moved to tears celebrating 10 years of 'PoliticsNation' - Page Six

Rev. Al Sharpton hit the stage Saturday during a voting rights rally to tell President Biden that supporters of the filibuster are "stabbing" the Black community "in the back."

"President Biden met with some of the civil rights leadership and we reminded himYou said the night you won that Black America had your back and that you were going to have Black Americas back," Sharpton told supporters. "Well, Mr. President, they're stabbing us in the back. In 49 states, theyve got their knives out stabbing us in the back."

AL SHARPTON, VOTING RIGHTS ACTIVISTS FLOCK TO WASHINGTON DC TO MARCH FOR FEDERAL ELECTION REFORMS

The civil rights activist called on Congress to pass the"John Lewis Voting Rights Act" in a move that he believes would counter state voting reform laws.

Republicans have argued that increased regulations around voting secure elections, while Democrats and activists believe that recent state-based legislation targets Black and Brown communities.

The "John Lewis Voting Rights Act" passed in the House 219-212 earlier this week, but its chances of surviving the Senate filibuster appears slim.

"You need to pick up the phone and call Manchin and others and tell them that if they can carve around the filibuster to confirm Supreme Court judges for President Trump, they can carve around the filibuster to bring voter rights to President Biden," Sharpton said.

MANCHIN SAYS 'NO' TO ENDING OR WEAKENING THE FILIBUSTER

Sharpton, along with other voting rights activists, has repeatedly called on Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia to support weakening or abolishing the filibuster.

But Manchin has flatly rejected the calls to do so.

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"I have said it before and will say it again to remove any shred of doubt: There is no circumstance in which I will vote to eliminate or weaken the filibuster," Manchin said in anop-ed in April.

The West Virginia Democrat has argued that he cannot justify tohis constituents a valid reason toweakena measure that requires the Senate have at least a 60-40 vote in order topass a bill.

Link:
Al Sharpton to Biden: Black community is being stabbed in the back - Fox News

Video above: House passes voting rights bill named after John LewisWhen Medgar Evers and Jimmie Lee Jackson were killed amid a yearslong battle for voting rights, it brought a sense of doom and darkness over the civil rights movement of the 1960s.Evers, an NAACP field secretary and civil rights leader who organized voter registration drives, boycotts and protests against school segregation, was shot in the back by a White supremacist in his driveway in June 1963.Jackson, a church deacon, was shot in the stomach by an Alabama State Trooper while trying to protect his mother during a march for voting rights in Marion, Alabama, in February 1965.Despite the anger and grief in the wake of their deaths, the civil rights movement pressed forward, activists and protesters kept marching and in August 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act, which prohibited racial discrimination in voting.The leaders of today's movement say they are carrying that same spirit of resilience as they lobby for Congress to pass federal voting legislation that would counter state-level laws they say are suppressing Black and brown voters.On Saturday, the March on for Voting Rights will take place in Washington DC, Atlanta, Houston, Phoenix and Miami to put pressure on the Senate to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, which increases the power of the federal government to block discriminatory election rules. The bill was passed in the House earlier this week but faces an uphill battle with the Senate given most Republicans oppose it. And on Friday, the Texas House approved a Republican voting restrictions bill after months of Democratic delays. Opponents warned that the bill would make voting harder for people of color, who often back Democrats, as well as disabled people -- in part by outlawing the all-night and drive-through voting that Houston conducted during the 2020 election.Saturday's mass mobilization will mark the 58th anniversary of the historic March on Washington where Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech. That march came just two months after Evers' death. An anniversary march was also held last year in Washington on the heels of nationwide protests following the death of George Floyd.The March On for Voting Rights comes after the arrests this summer of several civil rights leaders and lawmakers protesting voter suppression. Among them were Rev. Jesse Jackson, Rev. William J. Barber II, Cliff Albright, Rep. Hank Johnson and Rep. Joyce Beatty.The Rev. Al Sharpton, who is helping lead Saturday's march, said the deaths of Jimmie Lee Jackson and Evers taught many that the road to equality is never easy. A few weeks after Jackson was killed in 1965, John Lewis was beaten by White police officers so badly that he suffered a broken skull during "Bloody Sunday." Lewis and others marched for voting rights across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama."It's always been darkness before light broke through," Sharpton said. "We come out of that tradition."A persistent fight Civil rights icon Andrew Young said Jimmie Lee Jackson's death was actually the breaking point that led to the Selma march. Jackson, who had just returned from Vietnam, was attending his first march in Marion, Alabama with his mother and grandfather when he was shot trying to shield his mother from being beaten.Young recalled marching six miles in the freezing rain with other leaders from Jackson's funeral at a local church to the cemetery. Frustrated with Jackson's death, they began planning their next move: they were going to march from Selma to Montgomery to demand voting rights.Violence from police and White supremacists would never stop their fight, Young said."If somebody gets killed doing something right you have to send people there to take their place," Young said. "Because if you don't, you send the message that all you have to do to stop us is to kill someone."Mary Marcus, a friend of Jimmie Lee Jackson's family, said Jackson wasn't a vocal civil rights leader. He was a quiet man who mostly supported the movement behind the scenes, including taking his mother and grandfather to the march the day he was shot. Young said Jackson occasionally volunteered with voter registration efforts.Marcus said she hopes today's activists understand the battle for equality often requires sacrifice from more than just civil rights leaders, but also the foot soldiers in the background. "His (Jackson's) role was supporting those who supported the movement," said Marcus, 62 of Marion. "As a result of that when it was his turn to go to the rescue of someone else, he did. As a result of that, he lost his life."A historic victoryMonths after Jimmie Lee Jackson was slain and the Selma march happened, Congress passed the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and Johnson signed it.Young recalled going to the White House with Martin Luther King Jr. to meet with Johnson who insisted he did not have enough votes from Congress to get the bill passed.But Selma, Young said, influenced public opinion of voting rights and prompted lawmakers to support the bill. He believes today's activists can learn from the power of their organizing."We riled up the nation," Young said. "That persuaded the citizens that voting rights needed to be protected and that gave the president the power."Rev. Jesse Jackson, who was hospitalized last week for COVID-19, said in a statement that he will not be attending the march Saturday and is still receiving medical care.Jackson urged the nation to march whether in DC or at a local demonstration and pressure Congress to pass federal voting bills. He said the right to vote is key to jobs, raising the minimum wage, criminal justice reform, expanded health care and improving public education."So we want everybody to put on your marching shoes, and keep them on until everyone's right to vote is protected," Jackson said. "Keep marching and keep hope alive."Martin Luther King III, King Jr.'s eldest son who is also leading Saturday's march, said he has seen fervor in the demonstrators who rallied across the country after Floyd's death and showed up at last year's anniversary march.And while the 1963 March on Washington ultimately led to key voting rights legislation -- one of its top demands in addition to jobs and civil rights -- voter suppression efforts in recent years have been a setback, King said.Many of the tactics being used to disenfranchise Black and brown voters are "a more sophisticated form of Jim Crow," King said.King said he hopes the Saturday march sends the message that there is an urgency to rally around voting rights. He called it "frightening" that state legislatures are enacting laws that give them control over election outcomes."We are not going to just sit by idle and allow our rights to be eroded," King said. "My hope is that the community understands this is enough. We're not going to give up. "

Video above: House passes voting rights bill named after John Lewis

When Medgar Evers and Jimmie Lee Jackson were killed amid a yearslong battle for voting rights, it brought a sense of doom and darkness over the civil rights movement of the 1960s.

Evers, an NAACP field secretary and civil rights leader who organized voter registration drives, boycotts and protests against school segregation, was shot in the back by a White supremacist in his driveway in June 1963.

Jackson, a church deacon, was shot in the stomach by an Alabama State Trooper while trying to protect his mother during a march for voting rights in Marion, Alabama, in February 1965.

Despite the anger and grief in the wake of their deaths, the civil rights movement pressed forward, activists and protesters kept marching and in August 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act, which prohibited racial discrimination in voting.

The leaders of today's movement say they are carrying that same spirit of resilience as they lobby for Congress to pass federal voting legislation that would counter state-level laws they say are suppressing Black and brown voters.

On Saturday, the March on for Voting Rights will take place in Washington DC, Atlanta, Houston, Phoenix and Miami to put pressure on the Senate to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, which increases the power of the federal government to block discriminatory election rules. The bill was passed in the House earlier this week but faces an uphill battle with the Senate given most Republicans oppose it. And on Friday, the Texas House approved a Republican voting restrictions bill after months of Democratic delays. Opponents warned that the bill would make voting harder for people of color, who often back Democrats, as well as disabled people -- in part by outlawing the all-night and drive-through voting that Houston conducted during the 2020 election.

Saturday's mass mobilization will mark the 58th anniversary of the historic March on Washington where Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech. That march came just two months after Evers' death. An anniversary march was also held last year in Washington on the heels of nationwide protests following the death of George Floyd.

The March On for Voting Rights comes after the arrests this summer of several civil rights leaders and lawmakers protesting voter suppression. Among them were Rev. Jesse Jackson, Rev. William J. Barber II, Cliff Albright, Rep. Hank Johnson and Rep. Joyce Beatty.

The Rev. Al Sharpton, who is helping lead Saturday's march, said the deaths of Jimmie Lee Jackson and Evers taught many that the road to equality is never easy. A few weeks after Jackson was killed in 1965, John Lewis was beaten by White police officers so badly that he suffered a broken skull during "Bloody Sunday." Lewis and others marched for voting rights across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama.

"It's always been darkness before light broke through," Sharpton said. "We come out of that tradition."

Civil rights icon Andrew Young said Jimmie Lee Jackson's death was actually the breaking point that led to the Selma march. Jackson, who had just returned from Vietnam, was attending his first march in Marion, Alabama with his mother and grandfather when he was shot trying to shield his mother from being beaten.

Young recalled marching six miles in the freezing rain with other leaders from Jackson's funeral at a local church to the cemetery. Frustrated with Jackson's death, they began planning their next move: they were going to march from Selma to Montgomery to demand voting rights.

Violence from police and White supremacists would never stop their fight, Young said.

"If somebody gets killed doing something right you have to send people there to take their place," Young said. "Because if you don't, you send the message that all you have to do to stop us is to kill someone."

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Mary Marcus, a friend of Jimmie Lee Jackson's family, said Jackson wasn't a vocal civil rights leader. He was a quiet man who mostly supported the movement behind the scenes, including taking his mother and grandfather to the march the day he was shot. Young said Jackson occasionally volunteered with voter registration efforts.

Marcus said she hopes today's activists understand the battle for equality often requires sacrifice from more than just civil rights leaders, but also the foot soldiers in the background.

"His (Jackson's) role was supporting those who supported the movement," said Marcus, 62 of Marion. "As a result of that when it was his turn to go to the rescue of someone else, he did. As a result of that, he lost his life."

Months after Jimmie Lee Jackson was slain and the Selma march happened, Congress passed the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and Johnson signed it.

Young recalled going to the White House with Martin Luther King Jr. to meet with Johnson who insisted he did not have enough votes from Congress to get the bill passed.

But Selma, Young said, influenced public opinion of voting rights and prompted lawmakers to support the bill. He believes today's activists can learn from the power of their organizing.

"We riled up the nation," Young said. "That persuaded the citizens that voting rights needed to be protected and that gave the president the power."

JIM LO SCALZO/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

Rev. Jesse Jackson, who was hospitalized last week for COVID-19, said in a statement that he will not be attending the march Saturday and is still receiving medical care.

Jackson urged the nation to march whether in DC or at a local demonstration and pressure Congress to pass federal voting bills. He said the right to vote is key to jobs, raising the minimum wage, criminal justice reform, expanded health care and improving public education.

"So we want everybody to put on your marching shoes, and keep them on until everyone's right to vote is protected," Jackson said. "Keep marching and keep hope alive."

Martin Luther King III, King Jr.'s eldest son who is also leading Saturday's march, said he has seen fervor in the demonstrators who rallied across the country after Floyd's death and showed up at last year's anniversary march.

And while the 1963 March on Washington ultimately led to key voting rights legislation -- one of its top demands in addition to jobs and civil rights -- voter suppression efforts in recent years have been a setback, King said.

Many of the tactics being used to disenfranchise Black and brown voters are "a more sophisticated form of Jim Crow," King said.

King said he hopes the Saturday march sends the message that there is an urgency to rally around voting rights. He called it "frightening" that state legislatures are enacting laws that give them control over election outcomes.

"We are not going to just sit by idle and allow our rights to be eroded," King said. "My hope is that the community understands this is enough. We're not going to give up. "

Link:
'March on for Voting Rights' will take place Saturday in DC, Atlanta, Houston, Phoenix and Miami - WBAL Baltimore