On MLK Day, King III pleads for Senate action on voting rights – Orange County Register

By JEFF MARTIN and MICHAEL WARREN

ATLANTA (AP) – A day before the U.S. Senate is expected to pass key voting rights legislation that looks set to fail, Martin Luther King, Jr.’s eldest son. condemned federal lawmakers for their inaction.

Speaking in Washington, DC on Monday, Martin Luther King III said that although he was marking the federal holiday named for his father, he was not there to celebrate. He is there to urge Congress and President Joe Biden to pass sweeping legislation that will help ease Republican-led voting restrictions that have been passed in at least 19 states making voting difficult. more difficult.

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

Monday’s holiday marks the 93rd birthday of Father Martin Luther King, Jr., who was just 39 years old when he was assassinated in 1968 while helping strike sanitation workers for better pay. and workplace safety in Memphis, Tennessee.

Around the United States, other holiday events include marches in several cities, acts of service in the name of King, and Martin Luther King Jr. every year at the Ebenezer Baptist Church of the slain civil rights leader in Atlanta, where U.S. Senator Raphael Warnock was senior. pastor.

Pews has been packed with politicians over the years, but with the pandemic, many have made pre-recorded or live-streamed remarks, including Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.

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

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

Democrats had hoped to vote on the legislation on Monday, in a show of respect for the late civil rights leader as the issue centered on politics late last year and peaked. points with a strongly blunt speech last week by Biden, who likened January 6, 2021, today’s election violence and subversion to the civil rights struggles fought by King and others. . But it was too late for many civil rights leaders.

Republicans in the Senate remain unanimously opposed to the Democratic-voting bills, and the 50-50 chamber needs 60 votes to pass the legislation. Two Democrats, Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Senator Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, remain opposed to changing Senate rules that would allow Democrats to pass bills without a GOP . The vote has been pushed back to Tuesday, but there seems to be no way for the suffrage law to pass.

King tells how his father also faced civil rights obstruction by those who believed the issue could not be solved by law. “They told him he had to change his heart first. And he worked hard. After all, he was a Baptist preacher. But he knows that when someone denies you your basic rights, conversation and optimism won’t get you very far. “

Sinema had argued that bipartisanship was needed to resolve the issue, but King objected that major milestones, including the 14th Amendment granting citizenship to former slaves, had already been passed by Congress. without bipartisan support.

Harris met with lawmakers Monday with lawmakers ahead of the vote to work on passing the legislation. But when asked specifically about her message to Sinema and Manchin, she was not directly involved.

“As I have said before, there are hundreds of members of the United States Senate, and I will not condone – nor will any of us – absolve any member of the United States Senate from accepting responsibility for compliance. follow the oath they all took to support and defend the Constitution of the United States,” she said.

Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina, the Senate’s only black Republican, countered with a series of Kings Day-themed videos that he said would highlight positive developments in civil rights. Scott has dodged criticism of the GOP’s actions and accused Biden of labeling Republicans a racist.

Scott told the Associated Press: “Comparing or confusing those who oppose his stance as racist and treasonous to the country is not only insulting and infuriating but also fatally wrong.

To the sparse crowd at Ebenezer, Warnock, now running for re-election as Georgia’s first Black senator, said that “everybody loves Dr. King, they don’t always love Dr. what he stands for.

“Let that go, you can’t miss Dr. King and split his legacy at the same time,” Warnock said. “If you say his name, you have to stand up for the right to vote, you have to stand up for the poor and the oppressed and disenfranchised.”

Other leaders also weighed in. Former President Barack Obama shared a photo of King Yolanda’s granddaughter admiring a bust of the King that Obama kept in the Oval Office. “The battle for the right to vote takes perseverance,” Obama tweeted. “As Dr King said, ‘There are no broad highways to lead us easily and surely to quick solutions. We must continue. ‘”

King “saw great injustice in his world and fought to correct it,” Republican Georgia Governor Brian Kemp said in a recorded message broadcast at Ebenezer. “His methods eventually led to success and showed us all that taking the high road is the best path to achieving lasting change.”

Democrat Stacey Abrams, now trying again to defeat Kemp as he seeks re-election, tweeted that King’s call remained clear: “Give justice to the poor, protect Defend those targeted by hate, defend the freedom to vote, and ask our leaders against current malice as the best bulwark against future harm. “

King, who gave the historic “I Have a Dream” speech while leading in March 1963 in Washington and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964, considers racial equality to be inseparable from poverty alleviation. and end the war. His staunch opposition to nonviolence continues to influence activists promoting civil rights and social change.

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Associated Press writers Colleen Long of Wilmington, Del., and Meg Kinnard of Columbia, SC, contributed to this report.