Participants, including Martin Luther King III (C), walk across the Frederick Douglass Memorial Bridge to mark Martin Luther King Jr. Day during the Peace Walk in Washington, DC on January 17, 2022. (Photo by MANDEL NGAN / AFP)
WASHINGTON 鈥� Members of Martin Luther King Jr鈥檚 family joined marchers Monday in Washington urging Congress to pass voting rights reform as the United States marked the holiday commemorating the slain civil rights leader.
King鈥檚 son Martin Luther King III spoke at the march, warning that many states 鈥渉ave passed laws that make it harder to vote鈥� more than half a century after the activism of his father.
The march鈥檚 message was aimed at boosting support for the Freedom to Vote Act currently before the Senate, and which passed in the House of Representatives last week.
But the bill faces an uphill battle as President Joe Biden negotiates with two holdout senators in his own Democratic Party to change a procedural rule that would allow Congress to pass the law without Republican support.
Biden argues the bill is vital to protecting American democracy against Republican attempts to exclude Black and other predominantly Democratic voters through a spate of recently enacted laws at state and local levels.
Marchers at Monday鈥檚 Peace Walk echoed demands made by MLK more than 60 years ago as they chanted, 鈥淲hat do we want? Voting rights! When do we want it? Now!鈥�
Many carried posters printed with King鈥檚 image and his famous 1957 appeal to 鈥淕ive us the ballot,鈥� which called on the federal government to enforce Black Americans鈥� right to vote nationwide, including in the heavily segregated South.
鈥淲e march because our voting rights are under attack right now,鈥� pastor Reverend Wendy Hamilton told AFP at the demonstration.
鈥淎s a matter of fact, our democracy is very fragile,鈥� said Hamilton, a local politician in Washington, whose residents themselves do not have full representation in Congress.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and members of the Congressional Black Caucus, such as Terri Sewell from Alabama and chairwoman Joyce Beatty from Ohio, also spoke at the march 鈥� as did King鈥檚 13-year-old granddaughter Yolanda Renee King.
King鈥檚 daughter Bernice King also took to the social media platform to call for the Senate to pass voting reform.
鈥淚f these state voter suppression laws persist, the America my father dreamed about will never come to be,鈥� she wrote.
At the White House, Vice President Kamala Harris urged senators to pass the Freedom to Vote Act in honor of King鈥檚 legacy.
King 鈥減ushed for racial justice, for economic justice and for the freedom that unlocks all others: the freedom to vote,鈥� she said.
She denounced bills under consideration or already passed in state legislatures that she said could make it harder for 55 million Americans to cast ballots.
鈥淭o truly honor the legacy of the man we celebrate today, we must continue to fight for the freedom to vote, for freedom for all,鈥� Harris said.
Biden and Harris last week visited the crypt where King 鈥� who was assassinated in 1968 at age 39 鈥� and his wife, Coretta Scott King, are buried in Atlanta.