Civil rights leader Reverend Al Sharpton calls on the president Joe Biden Promote voting rights legislation on the 58th anniversary of the Washington parade.
At a rally in Washington, DC on Saturday, Sharpton recalled that when the civil rights leader met with Biden, he reminded him that on the night he won the 2020 presidential election, he said that black Americans supported him and he would support them.
“Well, Mr. President, they stabbed us in the back,” Sharpton said during legislative attempts to restrict voting in multiple states.
He called on Biden to take action to push senators to support the John Lewis Voting Rights Promotion Act, and “bypass” obstructions to advance the bill named after the deceased civil rights icon.He said Biden needed to call the moderate Democratic senator Joe Manchin West Virginia, and cooperated with him to pass legislation.
“You need to pick up the phone and call Manchin and others and tell them if they can bypass the obstruction of the agenda to confirm Supreme Court President Trump’s justices, they can bypass the obstruction bill and bring voting rights to President Biden,” Sharpton said.
According to the Associated Press, the House of Representatives passed the John Lewis Voting Rights Promotion Act on Tuesday, which will restore the voting rights protections abolished by the Supreme Court. The bill will require the Department of Justice to monitor changes in voting laws in states that “infringe” voting rights.
Now the legislation is moving towards Senate, It takes 60 votes to pass the obstruction bill. Sharpton urged the Senate to bypass the obstruction bill, which he called the “segregation legislative strategy.”
He said: “This obstruction bill cannot be used as an excuse not to reissue the Voting Rights Act as the John Lewis Voting Promotion Act.” “We will not stand idly by and let you obstruct our voting rights. We paid too high a price. People died to give us the right to vote. People spent the night in prison to give us the right to vote. People lost their lives to vote for us.”
Sharpton said he would continue to take action in the fall to fight for the right to vote, and hinted that there may be protests outside the Capitol.
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“Until we protect our voting rights, we will not stop,” he said.
Sharpton’s speech declined 58 years after Dr. Martin Luther King delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech during the Washington parade.
According to data from the Brennan Justice Center, as of July 14, at least 18 states have enacted laws that make voting more difficult, including laws restricting mailing and early voting, stricter voter ID requirements, and making mistakes. Voter purge is more likely to happen by law.
Weekly newspaper Sharpton and the White House were contacted for comment on Sunday morning, but no response from the publication was received. This story will be updated with any response.
