March on Washington renews focus on voting rights after Supreme Court gutting

WASHINGTON (RNS) — Thousands of people gathered before the Lincoln Memorial on the 63 rd anniversary of the March on Washington for a program Friday (Aug. 28) bookended by prayers and focused on voting rights.

The son of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., who that day more than six decades before delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech, decried the state of voting rights in America, referring to the Supreme Court’s gutting of the landmark 1965 Voting Rights Act earlier this year.

“The fact that we still have to fight to maintain and renew voting rights in this country is beyond abysmal and a truly national disgrace,” Martin Luther King III said Friday. “If some don’t change their ways, it won’t be long before we all experience the discomfort of the divine judgment that God has promised.”

The Rev. Al Sharpton, president of the National Action Network civil rights organization, said it was time to organize for voting rights on a new level.

“We must turn this country upside down with those elected officials that are taking, for us, the right to vote,” he said, drawing cheers. “The Callais decision by the Supreme Court shot a bullet in the heart of voting rights, but they don’t…