As Black communities across the U.S. South grapple with the rolling back of their voting rights in former Confederate states, where Republicans are literally drawing them out of power, thousands will gather this weekend at the historic site that gave way to the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to show unity and to make a statement.
Organizers of the “All Roads Lead to the South” National Day of Action make clear that the Saturday mass gathering in Montgomery and Selma, Alabama, along with nationwide activations, is not a protest.
“This is not a protest. This is a calling in. In many ways, it’s like an altar call,” said LaTosha Brown, voting rights activist and co-founder of Black Lives Matter, during a virtual press conference previewing the mass demonstration.
“We are calling all people of goodwill, people who want to and believe in a strong democracy, people who actually…respect the voting power of Black people in this nation, that people who really believe in free and fair elections, we are calling them from all corners of the country to actually come and stand with us,” said Brown, a lead organizer.
Brown was joined by the president and director-counsel of the Legal Defense Fund, Janai Nelson, who notably argued the Supreme Court case, Louisiana v. Callais, on behalf of Black voters, which ultimately resulted in the court’s conservative majority gutting the Voting Rights Act on April 29. Subsequently, a wave of Republican-led states in the South, like Louisiana, Alabama, Tennessee, South Carolina, and Georgia, rushed to redraw congressional maps that would eliminate majority-Black districts.
While Nelson said it was a “privilege” and “honor” to amplify Black voters in “some of the most powerful spaces in government and in this country,” she bemoaned, “Unfortunately, those institutions have betrayed us.”
The civil rights attorney continued, “Unfortunately, those institutions cannot be relied on to provide the checks and balances that are needed in this moment to secure and safeguard our democracy. Unfortunately, those institutions have become complicit in the destruction of it.”
The organizers of “All Roads Lead to the South” have intentionally refrained from framing Saturday’s gathering as a protest and from emphasizing the names of elected officials and leaders who will be speaking and participating. Those names include Dr. Bernice King, the daughter of civil rights icon Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., U.S. Senators Raphael Warnock and Cory Booker, and U.S. Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ayanna Pressley, Terri Sewell, and several others.
The national day of action is also supported by more than 250 organizations, including the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), and the “No Kings” coalition, which has brought millions to the streets in nationwide protests since President Donald Trump returned to office.
The focus, organizers say, is on the people and on ensuring that they are taking this moment seriously — a moment described as the greatest setback to Black political power and equal access to voting since the 1877 post-Reconstruction era that gave way to the Jim Crow era that racially segregated and subjugated generations of Black Americans.
Participants, joined by faith leaders, will be led in a church service to anchor them in the faith tradition of the civil rights era, steeped in the Black church that came before them. They will then engage in a silent march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge, where protesters led by John Lewis were battered and seriously injured during a 1965 Montgomery to Selma march, now known as Bloody Sunday. The pro-justice coalition says the demonstration is meant to foster “gratitude for the moral courage they showed the nation, and in faith that the same Spirit that moved them still moves in us.”
Ultimately, leaders say they want to empower Black and coalition voters to know that regardless of who sits on the Supreme Court or inside the White House, the power has and will always belong to the people. Much like the foremothers and forefathers who came before them in the 1960s, organizers say this moment calls for a new path forward — one that creates a better, more just system to ensure lasting justice and a democracy that works for everyone. Much like a Third Reconstruction, but one that is long-lasting.
“We need a refounding of this democracy. We are not looking for serial reconstructions. We are done with that project. America needs to finally become the country that it proclaims to be, and this is a moment to create that movement to make it happen,” Nelson of the LDF told theGrio. “We’re not looking to have another wave of legislation that we then have to fight for again in another 25 years.”
The civil rights attorney said there is a “whole menu” of actions leaders would like to see, such as establishing court reform in light of the Supreme Court’s Callais ruling, as the high court has faced increased scrutiny over perceptions of political bias and ethical corruption.
“We need court reform from top to bottom, from the Supreme Court down to our lower federal courts. We also need reform in our state courts. We need to be sure that we have objective, independent judges and justices who cannot be co-opted and corrupted,” said Nelson.
“We also need to get rid of any and all institutions that carry forward the vestiges of slavery and compromise,” she added. “That includes the Senate, that includes things like the filibuster, that includes not having statehood in D.C., that includes not having affirmative protection of the right to vote, that includes so much that should be basic to a democracy that’s serious about representing the people and delivering to the people.”
Brown of Black Voters Matter told theGrio that it is significant that this year marks the 250th anniversary of the United States of America, which President Trump has used to plaster his name and likeness on U.S. currency, passports, and federal buildings.
“The founders of this country didn’t represent any of us…the majority of America was not reflected, including white men, if you did not have wealth. So, ultimately, that limited vision, where they couldn’t even see the full humanity of our communities or the full humanity of the majority of people in this country,” said Brown. “That vision has run its course…we believe that we have to be the architects of what is next, what is new.”
She added, “The only people that can do that are not political parties. Political parties are not mentioned in the Constitution. It is the people…we, the people, have the right to actually the nation that we desire and that we deserve.”
