Let us carry on his legacy
By Robin Carnahan
Missouri Secretary of State
In March 1965, civil rights advocates set out on a 54-mile march along Highway 80, a rural stretch of road that runs from Selma to the state capitol of Montgomery, Alabama. Through the rain and chilling weather, Martin Luther King Jr., heroically led the march for voting rights that had twice been turned back.
The focus of the voting inequality was Selma, Alabama, where, like in many other Southern cities at the time, Jim Crow laws and segregation made for a divided community and unequal treatment for blacks and whites. Poll taxes, literacy tests and other suppressive tactics kept African Americans from voting, barring almost half the community from participating in elections.
The persistence and courage of Dr. King and his band of patriots, who numbered in the thousands and came from all across America, helped ensure the right to vote for all our citizens regardless of race or color. The effectiveness of their non-violent protest was seen five months later with the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.
Staying true to the example set by Dr. King means standing up against any voting scheme, even today, that’s designed to minimize voter participation. That’s why it was necessary to fight when the legislature pushed through an unconstitutional and restrictive photo-ID law that threatened the voting rights of 200,000 of our citizens, mostly seniors, minorities, the poor and those with disabilities.
Dr. King once said, “You ought to believe something in life and believe that thing so fervently that you will stand up with it till the end of your days.”
He ardently believed that for our democracy to succeed we must all be full and active participants in the process. That means registering to vote, being informed and voting.
It also means, when necessary, defending that right to vote. By doing this, we honor Dr. King’s memory and the brave men and women who stood by him during one of the gravest hours in our nation’s history.