Black scholars and social activists bemoan the fact that the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. may seem to be eroding amid an assault on civil rights, but some say the challenges themselves are serving to reinvigorate his legacy.
Social activists like Kadida Kenner, founding executive director of the New Pennsylvania Project, a voting rights organization, says the assault on voting rights in this country is a setback to racial justice.The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. bequeathed to the nation a message of peace, racial justice and non-violence.
Nowhere is the assault on King’s legacy as stark, Black Americans say, than in the mounting assault on voting rights across the country. “In this moment we don’t have a single Republican willing to reauthorize voting rights,” Kenner said. “That’s concerning. I think in this moment we are so politicized, so concerned with remaining in power, that we are willing to do things we didn’t do in the height of the 1960s.”
Since the November 2020 presidential election, nearly 400 bills have been introduced in 48 states to restrict voting rights; approximately 34 of those bills have been ratified. VonLockette, who is writing a book on systemic discrimination, said she is at times humbled by the perennial struggles over the same battles, including those for voting rights and economic justice.
Of course, many stakeholders in the Black community note significant progress that has been made since King called upon the nation to examine its conscience. “e have always believed that an attack on the freedoms of any American is viewed within our community as an attack on all Americans,” Williams said. “I see a unity, that coming together for the greater good, that I have not seen in many years.”
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