WASHINGTON — Each year, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday is commemorated with marches, services and speeches. But the annual peace walk across the Frederick Douglass Memorial Bridge had an additional purpose on Monday: pushing the Senate to pass new voting rights legislation.
The holiday came one day before the Senate returns to debate what is expected to be a doomed effort to pass the legislation. Despite the near certain defeat, voting rights activists, Democratic officials and relatives of Dr. King said they were not giving up.
“I hope they do the right thing tomorrow,” said DaMareo Cooper, the co-chairman of the Center for Popular Democracy, a progressive advocacy group. “But if not, expect to hear from our communities. Expect for this not to just be something that you get to do and hide behind the filibuster.”
He added: “We are paying attention. We will be in the streets. We will protect our rights.”
Speakers at a news conference after the march sharply criticized members of the Senate and President Biden for their failure to enact voting reforms as they focused on other Democratic priorities — and as voters’ rights have eroded under Supreme Court rulings and laws passed by Republican state legislatures that make it harder for people of color to vote.
“We’ve seen what President Biden and Senate Democrats can do when they commit,” said Arndrea Waters King, the president of the Drum Major Institute — a liberal policy group — and the wife of Martin Luther...
The DBM released P362 million to accelerate recovery efforts, while a House bill is seeking a P15-billion supplemental budget for Mindanao quake victims Claim: No budget has been allotted to help ...