During a 1965 speech in Montgomery, Alabama, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, “The Civil Rights Act of 1964 gave Negroes some part of their rightful dignity, but without the vote it was dignity without strength.”
King, who fought relentlessly for the Voting Rights Act along with his wife, Coretta Scott King, would be dismayed that the fight is far from over. Not only do his words still resonate, but also the need to use a range of strategies to push for unfettered access to voting. That means pushing African Americans to use their individual and collective power to push those in power to do that right thing — and to push out those who misuse their power.
As he said, “Let us march on ballot boxes until race-baiters disappear from the political arena.”