By Bianca Flowers
CHICAGO, July 15 (Chicago) – Civil rights leaders have announced plans for a Washington march next month to defend voting rights, saying recent court decisions have weakened key federal protections against racial discrimination in voting.
The coalition — led by Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network and joined by Martin Luther King III, Arndrea Waters King, and labor and civil rights groups — said they will host the “March on Washington 2026: Defend the Vote” march on August 28. That will mark the 63rd anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom and Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech.
Organizers, in a statement on Tuesday, said they hope to use the event to pressure lawmakers and rally a response to the erosion of voting protections.
The League of Women Voters separately on Wednesday announced plans for an August 8 “day of action” focused on voting rights ahead of the November midterm elections, citing an urgent need to encourage civic participation in American democracy.
Both groups pointed to the Supreme Court’s April ruling weakening Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, a key provision used to challenge voting laws and electoral maps that discriminate on the basis of race or dilute minority voting power. Organizers said the decision has intensified a long-running fight over Black political representation.
Some Republicans have defended the court’s decision, arguing that race-conscious redistricting is unconstitutional.
Sharpton, however, called the ruling “a bullet in the heart of the voting rights movement,” underscoring the stakes civil rights advocates see surrounding the court’s decision. The march follows a Wall Street demonstration last year that drew hundreds to downtown Manhattan to protest against what they said was corporate America’s retreat from diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives under pressure from the Trump administration.
“Defending the vote means defending the foundation of our democracy,” Martin Luther King III said in a statement. “Sixty-three years after my father stood at the Lincoln Memorial, we are called to march again, not only in remembrance, but in action.”
The coalition includes the Drum Major Institute, the American Federation of Teachers, the American Federation of Government Employees, the NAACP, the National Council of Negro Women, the National Urban League, the League of United Latin American Citizens and the Working Families Party. U.S. Representative Yvette Clarke, a New York Democrat who chairs the Congressional Black Caucus, is expected to attend with other U.S. lawmakers, organizers said.
The League of Women Voters also cited other Supreme Court decisions on campaign spending, as well as Republican-led efforts to pass voter ID legislation that would also compel states to turn over their voter registration rolls to the federal government.
The nonpartisan voting rights group said its event next month is part of a larger initiative aimed at mobilizing 8.5 million voters before the November 3 election and will take place nationwide with key actions in Phoenix, Atlanta, Detroit, Philadelphia and Berkeley, California.
(Bianca Flowers in Chicago; additional reporting by Susan Heavey in Washington; Editing by Kat Stafford, Edmund Klamann and Aurora Ellis)
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