VP Harris urges action on voting rights in virtual MLK Day address
Vice President Kamala Harris made a plea for action on voting rights on Monday in an address to the observance of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday in Atlanta.
Speaking via a video link from the White House just days before the Senate was expected to take up significant legislation on voting rights that is looking likely to fail, Harris urged Americans to fight against measures that could make it harder to vote for tens of millions in states across the nation.
“Today our freedom to vote is under assault,” Harris said in a five-minute speech. “If we stand idly by, our entire nation will pay the price for decades to come.”
Due to the pandemic, the nation’s first Black vice president addressed a socially distanced crowd of a few dozen people gathered in the historic sanctuary of Ebenezer Baptist Church where King once preached.
“We must not be complacent or complicit,” Harris said. “To truly honor Dr. King, we must fight for the freedom to vote.”
The vice president was meeting with lawmakers in Washington ahead of the vote working to get the legislation passed.
“As I’ve said before, there are a hundred members of the United States Senate, and I’m not going to absolve — nor should any of us — absolve any member of the United States Senate from taking on a responsibility to follow through on the oath that they all took to support and defend the Constitution of the United States,” she said.
President Biden issued a video statement from his home in Wilmington, Del., urging Americans to “speak out” on King’s birthday.
“It’s time for every elected official in America to make it clear where they stand,” Biden said. “It’s time for every American to stand up. Speak out, be heard. Where do you stand?”
A litany of political leaders addressed the annual observance ceremony for King, who would have marked his 93rd birthday. The civil rights leader was just 39 when he was assassinated in 1968 while helping sanitation workers strike for better pay and workplace safety in Memphis.
Sen. Raphael Warnock, the only Black senator ever elected from Georgia, called out those who pay lip service to King but fail to fight for his values
“You cannot remember King and dismember his legacy at the same time,” said Warnock, senior pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church. “If you would speak his name, you have to stand up for voting rights, you have to stand up on behalf of the poor.”
Mayor Andre Dickens of Atlanta recalled King’s famed reference to the “urgency of now” when advocating for social justice six decades ago.
“We are still now fighting for what should be the cornerstone of American democracy,” Dickens said.
