WASHINGTON —Voting rights, and even more importantly, defending the right to vote, will be the key cause of a new March on Washington, scheduled for Aug.28.
The march is expected to draw thousands from a broad coalition of groups, including the National Action Network, labor unions including the Service Employees, the Government Employees, the United Food and Commercial Workers, Pride at Work, and at least 65 other community and civil rights groups, including the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and 2026 Freedom Summer.
It will run from 8 a.m. through 3 p.m. in front of the Lincoln Memorial, the site of Dr. King’s iconic 1963 march where he delivered the “I Have a Dream” speech. Marching again this time, on the anniversary of the original march, is absolutely necessary, organizers say.
The Trump administration and Republican lawmakers in Congress and state legislatures are doing everything they can to destroy voting rights and throw people off the rolls before the November election, the groups warn. They are also cooking up methods to block elections in cases where they disapprove of winners.
Their attacks on the vote run the gamut from purging voting rolls to stacking local elections boards with Trump backers ready to invalidate votes to House enactment of the so-called “SAVE Act,” which would bring back Jim Crow 2.0 to potential violence by Trump troops in the nation’s cities, especially D.C. itself.
Trump controls the National Guard in the capital, which patrols the city along with 5,000 Guards, mostly from red states. Trump says they’ll reduce high crime, though crime was declining sharply even before he re-entered the White House on Jan. 20, 2025. The troops will sstay through the next inauguration in 2029.
In reality, the Guards are there to harass, repress, round up, and deport people and to intimidate voters heading to the polls in the plurality-Black capital city, local activists charge.
Among the other endorsers of the march next week are the Urban League, Democracy Forward, Indivisible, the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, Common Cause, the National Council of Churches, and the Communist Party USA, which will have a contingent at the march.
“We march because the work” of King’s Aug. 28, 1963 March for Jobs and Justice “is not finished,” the National Action Network and the Drum Major Institute, another sponsor, said.
“We march to defend the vote, because voting rights are under attack and the protections generations fought, bled, and died for are being weakened.
“We march to defend civil rights, because attacks on diversity, equity, and inclusion are attempts to roll back access, opportunity, and representation.
“We march for economic justice, because too many families are still fighting for fair wages, affordable housing, equal opportunity, and a fair chance to build wealth.
“This is not only about one election. This is about whether our democracy will protect all of us. This is about whether the promises of 1963 will finally be made real. This is about standing together, across generations, to say we will not go backward.”
Information about the march and signup forms are available online.
We hope you appreciated this article. At People’s World, we believe news and information should be free and accessible to all, but we need your help. Our journalism is free of corporate influence and paywalls because we are totally reader-supported. Only you, our readers and supporters, make this possible. If you enjoy reading People’s World and the stories we bring you, please support our work by donating or becoming a monthly sustainer today. Thank you!
CONTRIBUTOR
