Indivisibles,

Martin Luther King Jr. Day arrives this year amid a deliberate effort to
rewrite American history and a wholesale assault on civil rights in
America.

It has been one year since Donald Trump was inaugurated on Martin Luther
King Jr. Day. It felt cruel and grotesque that a man who represents so
much of what Dr. King stood against could rise to power on a day meant to
honor the struggle for racial justice and democracy.

Over the last year, we have seen a devastating, sustained attack on nearly
every facet of the civil rights architecture in America. We have seen the
gutting of civil rights enforcement; high-profile purges of Black federal
employees and a drive to functionally resegregate the federal workforce;
the rewriting of history in official documents and even in Smithsonian
museums; and vicious attacks on Black refugees from Haiti, Somalia, and
other African countries. 

As I write this email, we are awaiting a Supreme Court decision that could
potentially gut the final remaining provisions of the Voting Rights Act --
part of an overarching campaign to suppress Black voters and Black
political power across the country.

It is important to name what we are facing. This is a dedicated, organized
campaign to eradicate civil rights, erase history, and enshrine white
supremacy as a central governing principle. While the scale and speed of
the onslaught are immense, the project itself is not new. Today’s MAGA
movement is the modern heir to the racial authoritarian regime that has
shaped American governance since the nation’s founding.

When we look for inspiration and lessons, we often turn to struggles for
democracy abroad. But the truth is that the United States has been engaged
in an unfinished fight for democracy for most of its history. In a very
real sense, this country did not begin to function as a democracy until
civil rights organizers created the conditions for the passage of the
Voting Rights Act in 1965.

That is why the first, and most important, lessons for today’s fight for
democracy come from the civil rights movement here at home. In fact, many
of the international movements we cite for inspiration trace their own
lineage back to Dr. King and the Birmingham Bus Boycott, the Freedom
Riders, and the Selma march.

From successful economic campaigns like the Birmingham Bus Boycott, to the
disciplined use of nonviolence, to the strategic leveraging of repression
so that state violence backfired, to mass mobilization and noncooperation
-- so many of the tactics and strategies we talk about today were forged
by leaders like Dr. King, John Lewis, Ella Baker, Diane Nash, and
countless unnamed organizers who refused to accept injustice as
inevitable.

The fight for racial justice in America has always been the fight for
democracy in America; it’s crucial that we recognize them as inseparable.
And as we honor Dr. King and his legacy, we do so not by sanitizing or
reducing it, but by recognizing the fullness of his vision -- for racial
justice, economic justice, and ending war and imperialism.

So on this MLK Day, we ask you to do more than post a quote or take the
day off.

We ask you to learn and reflect on the legacy of Dr. King and the civil
rights movement, and to recommit to the fight for a just, inclusive, and
equitable democracy.

We ask you to support organizations leading the fight today, such as our
friends at the [ [link removed] ]Transformative Justice Coalition and [ [link removed] ]Black Voters
Matter Fund, who are each organizing to protect and advance Black
political power and voting rights in this crucial moment.

And we ask you to commit to sustained, collective action in the months and
years ahead.

The arc of the moral universe does not bend on its own. It bends because
people organize, resist, and refuse to comply with injustice -- again and
again, even when the path is hard.

Honoring Dr. King today means continuing that work.

In solidarity,
Leah Greenberg
Co-Executive Director, Indivisible

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