Political Rewind: Reflecting on Dr. King's legacy as fight for voting rights continues

Caption

A visitor walks through the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial as a winter storm blows through the Washington area, Sunday, Jan. 16, 2022. Ceremonies scheduled for the site on Monday, to mark the Martin Luther King, Jr. national holiday have been canceled because of the weather.

Credit: J. David Ake, AP

The Panel:

Jim Galloway — Former political columnist, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Michael Thurmond — CEO, DeKalb County

Al Vivian — President and CEO, Basic Diversity

Maria Saporta — Founder and editor, The Saporta Report

Dr. Fred Smith — Professor of Constitutional Law, Emory University

The Breakdown:

1. Georgia and Atlanta are linked to the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King.

• King was born Jan. 15, 1929, in an Atlanta house on 501 Auburn Avenue.
• MLK delivered many of his most powerful sermons nearby in Ebenezer Baptist Church. He served as co-pastor of the church with his father from 1960 to 1968.
• The Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change was established by his wife Coretta Scott King in Atlanta in the 1960s. It is now a historical landmark.
• Coretta Scott King also pushed for her husband's birthday to become a national holiday. Congress passed the law in 1983. The first observance was in 1986.

2. Voting rights legislation, an issue linked intrinsically to King's legacy, is stalled in the Senate.

• This comes after President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris visited Atlanta last Tuesday to push for the cause. 
  • Notable top Democrats and voting rights advocates were missing from his speech, including Stacey Abrams.
• On Thursday, Biden admitted he may not have the votes to get voting rights legislation passed.  
  • The Freedom To Vote Act would set new minimum standards for early and mail-in voting, among other provisions.
  • The John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act seeks to restore elements of the landmark Voting Rights Act weakened by Supreme Court rulings.  
• The Voting Rights Act was passed in 1965. Since then it has been reauthorized five times with large bipartisan majorities. The last time it was passed was in 2006 under then-president George W. Bush.

3. The King Family heads to Washington, D.C., to push for voting rights.

• The family plans to lead a march on Martin Luther King Jr. Day across the Fredrick Douglass Memorial Bridge over the Anacostia River near the U.S. Capitol.

Tomorrow on Political Rewind: We are set to be joined by author Farah Stockman to discuss her book, American Made.