Thousands of people on Saturday marched in the nation’s capital to commemorate the 58th anniversary of the March on Washington in 1963 – seeking to push Congress to pass federal voting-rights legislation to counter the raft of restrictive voting bills being implemented in states across the country.
More than 20,000 people participated in the march, the Rev. Al Sharpton estimated in a Twitter post. Rallies also took place in Phoenix, Miami and dozens of other cities. Organizers for the March On for Voting Rights, which in addition to Washington, DC, is taking place in Atlanta, Houston, Miami, and Phoenix, are using the event to call out voter suppression and push for fair elections. On the way to the National Mall, marchers advocated for lawmakers to pass voting-rights measures that have stalled in Congress – the For the People Act (H.R. 1) and the John Lewis Voting Advancement Act (H.R. 4). Held on the anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s historic 1963 March on Washington, organizers of the “March On For Washington And Voting Rights” stressed that the moves to curb voting access would disproportionately affect people of color. At the first March on Washington in 1963, an estimated 250,000 people gathered to demand civil rights. This year, the march – organized by Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network and 180 partner organizations – in part calls on the Senate to pass the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act of 2021.
