On MLK Day, King III implores Senate to act on voting rights

ATLANTA — A day before the U.S. Senate was expected to take up significant legislation on voting rights that is looking likely to fail, Martin Luther King, Jr.’s eldest son condemned federal lawmakers over their inaction.

Speaking in Washington, D.C. on Monday, Martin Luther King III said though he was marking the federal holiday named for his father, he wasn’t there to celebrate. He was there to call on Congress and President Joe Biden to pass the sweeping legislation that would help ease Republican-led voting restrictions passed in at least 19 states that make it more difficult to cast a ballot.

“Our democracy stands on the brink of serious trouble without these bills,” he said.

Monday’s holiday marked what would have been the 93rd birthday of the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., who was just 39 when he was assassinated in 1968 while helping sanitation workers strike for better pay and workplace safety in Memphis, Tennessee.

Around the U.S., other holiday events included marches in several cities, acts of service in King’s name, and the annual Martin Luther King Jr. service at the slain civil rights leader’s Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, where U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock is the senior pastor.

Pews have been packed by politicians in past years, but given the pandemic, many gave either pre-recorded or livestreamed remarks instead, including Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.

Biden said Americans must commit to the King’s unfinished work, delivering jobs and justice and protecting “the sacred right to vote, a right from which all other rights flow.”

“It’s time for every elected official in America to make it clear where they stand,” Biden said. “It’s time for every American to stand up. Speak out, be heard. Where do you stand?”

Democrats had hoped to vote on the legislation Monday, in a show of respect for the late civil rights leader as the issue gathered political steam late last year and peaked with a powerful blunt speech last week by Biden, who likened the Jan. 6, 2021, violence and election subversion of today with the civil rights struggles fought by King and others. But it comes too late for many civil rights leaders.

Senate Republicans remain unified in opposition to the Democrats’ voting bills, and the 50-50 chamber needs 60 votes to pass the legislation. Two Democrats, Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, remain opposed to changing Senate rules that would allow for the Democrats to pass the bills without the GOP.

The vote was pushed back to today, but it looks as if it there is no way through for the legislation to protect the right to vote.

King told of how his father also faced a pushback on civil rights by those who believed the issue could not be solved with legislation. “They told him he had to change hearts first. And he worked hard at that. After all, he was a Baptist preacher. But he knew that when someone is denying you your fundamental rights, conversation and optimism won’t get you very far.”