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“I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.”

The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered those words, the opening of his famous “I Have a Dream” speech, 61 years ago today at the March on Washington.

Tired of facing “the chains of discrimination,” tired of Jim Crow laws stripping away rights and freedoms, Black Americans and allies gathered in our nation’s capital to advocate for civil rights, including the right to vote. Tactics like poll taxes, literacy tests, and violent intimidation were frequently in use in the south, making it harder for Black Americans to vote and be a part of our democracy.

Too often these battles for civil rights were seen as isolated and regional — but suddenly there were 250,000 people on the Mall in Washington visualizing the struggle for democracy, fueled by the promise of change. Georgia’s future Congressman John Lewis was one of the organizers of the March, as the chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.

And the U.S. government took notice. In the year following the March, the quest for the right to vote resulted in the killing of civil rights workers in Mississippi, which compelled the U.S. government to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964, followed by the harrowing battle in Selma, which culminated in the signing of the National Voting Rights Act of 1965. Together, these two pieces of legislation struck down Jim Crow-era discrimination and disenfranchisement, making discriminatory voting practices illegal.

The legacy of the March on Washington lives on in Fair Fight’s work, and in our modern-day movement to protect the right to vote here in Georgia and wherever voter suppression takes place. If anti-voter politicians gain power this year, we can expect them to pass laws and policies that infringe on voting rights, pushing access to the ballot box out of reach for many. We can’t let that happen.

As Dr. King said to the thousands gathered on that day in August, “Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy.” Our pro-voter movement wouldn’t be here without you — chip in today to support our fight. [[link removed]]

Thank you for all that you do.

Carol Anderson,
Fair Fight

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