Voting rights advocates, clergy leaders and community organizers plan to gather Saturday in Kansas City as part of a nationwide National Voting Rights Day of Action responding to what organizers describe as growing attacks on voting rights and Black political power.
The Kansas City rally is one of several satellite events planned across the country as part of the “All Roads Lead to the South” mobilization campaign organized by Black Voters Matter and a coalition of more than 250 civil rights, faith and voting rights organizations.
Organizers say Missouri has become an important battleground in the national voting rights debate following recent court rulings and congressional redistricting fights.
The national event comes weeks after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling weakening parts of the Voting Rights Act and days after the Missouri Supreme Court rejected legal challenges to Missouri’s congressional maps.
Critics argue the new congressional maps diluted minority voting strength by splitting Kansas City into three congressional districts.
The Kansas City rally will feature remarks from Rev. Dr. Emanuel Cleaver III, People Not Politicians Campaign Director Jamie Johnson, clergy members and other local leaders.
National leaders connected to the broader campaign include LaTosha Brown and Cliff Albright of Black Voters Matter; Melanie Campbell of the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation; and Janai Nelson of the Legal Defense Fund.
The national effort includes major events in Selma and Montgomery, Alabama, tied to the historic fight for voting rights.
In Selma, faith and civil rights leaders will gather at Tabernacle Baptist Church before marching silently across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in remembrance of the 1965 voting rights marches that helped lead to passage of the Voting Rights Act.
Montgomery will host a large national rally organizers say is intended to launch a sustained nationwide voting rights mobilization effort.
Bishop B.T. Rice, who helped organize clergy opposition to Missouri’s congressional maps last year, said the event is intended to continue the long fight for voting rights protections.
“The same spirit that fueled our forebearers who marched across the Edmund Pettus Bridge for the Voting Rights Act in 1965 is the same spirit that lives on in us today,” Rice said in a statement. “Now is not the time to stand idly by. We have a moral imperative to fight for a more just democracy for all.”
Kansas City Event Details
What: National Voting Rights Day of Action satellite rally
When: Saturday, May 16, 2-3 p.m.
Where: Mill Creek Park near the fountain, Broadway Boulevard, Kansas City, Missouri
The event is organized by the Missouri Voter Protection Coalition and partner organizations, including Missouri Faith Voices.
