Among them will be Zuley Yepez, whose intergenerational pathway to the
march one might call particularly long...
SPLC delegation to join March on Washington 60th anniversary
commemoration
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Esther Schrader Read the full piece here
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Friend,
When the grassy expanses and the shaded walkways radiating from the
Lincoln Memorial and its Reflecting Pool fill up this weekend to mark
the 60th anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington
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, the gathered throngs calling on the federal government to protect
voting rights will carry with them the weight of countless individual
journeys.
Among them will be Zuley Yepez, whose intergenerational pathway to the
march one might call particularly long. Her mother walked to the U.S.
from war-torn Nicaragua in the 1980s and her father fled the civil war
in El Salvador. Yepez, a soft-spoken former Marine studying to become
an immigration attorney, is the first to insist she is not one of the
"heroes" who will be at the Aug. 26 commemoration
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. She reserves that distinction for the Black civil rights leaders,
old and young, she reveres.
But in her fierce desire to protect the rights of those who, like her
family, seek new lives in the U.S., Yepez has undertaken a journey
that is both inspired by and representative of the dream
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Martin Luther King Jr. expressed to the 250,000 people at the 1963
gathering.
"The people that were part of the Civil Rights Movement,
it's because of them that immigrants were able to become
citizens in this country and to advocate legally for our own
rights," said Yepez, 32. "If it wasn't for the March
on Washington, the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act, everything
that followed, the rest of us wouldn't have our civil rights
protected."
Yepez is one of 45 fellows of the Southern Poverty Law Center's
Advocacy Institute
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who are traveling to Washington this weekend as part of a large and
diverse SPLC delegation, including SPLC President and CEO Margaret
Huang, who is scheduled to speak at the event.
Grassroots activists, students, entrepreneurs, formerly incarcerated
men and women, lawyers and judges among them, the Advocacy Institute
fellows come from vastly different backgrounds and have traveled many
different journeys.
What unites them is the desire to make change. And they all know that
access to the ballot is the key to unlocking change across the array
of inequities that challenge their communities.
"We are in a state of crisis in our country, and for the past
two years the SPLC has been committed to ensuring that when we think
about this fight for democracy, that the people are not lost in that
equation," said Waikinya Clanton, director of the SPLC's
Mississippi state office.
"That is why we committed the resources to creating the Advocacy
Institute," Clanton said. "We are thrilled to come to
Washington not only to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the March
on Washington, but to play our role in the continued fight for voting
rights in this country."
Read More
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In solidarity,
Your friends at the Southern Poverty Law Center
The SPLC is a catalyst for racial justice in the South and beyond,
working in partnership with communities to dismantle white supremacy,
strengthen intersectional movements, and advance the human rights of
all people.
Friend, will you make a gift to help the SPLC fight for
justice and equity in courts and combat white supremacy?
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