'Journey for Justice' Spotlights Need for Action on Voting Rights

The NAACP, along with a broad coalition of partners, announced America's Journey for Justice, an 860-mile March from Selma, Alabama, to Washington, DC, starting Aug. 1. The march marks the 50th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act and will spotlight the need for action to restore and safeguard citizens' right to vote.

Partners include the Democracy Initiative, CWA, Common Cause, NAACP Legal Defense Fund, Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, 1199 SEIU, The Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, Sierra Club, National Bar Association, Black Women's Roundtable and others.

Rev. William Barber addresses activists at the Lincoln Memorial, part of the launch of the "Journey for Justice" for voting rights.

Leaders and activists announced the march at a news conference at the Lincoln Memorial. Cornell William Brooks, NAACP President and CEO, said the action will mobilize activists and advance a focused national policy agenda that protects the right of every American to uncorrupted access to the ballot box, a fair criminal justice system, sustainable jobs with a living wage and equitable public education.

Larry Cohen, chair of the Democracy Initiative, said, "We're going to march and organize across the South, and together, be a part of this fight for justice."

Activists will march under the banner that "Our Lives, Our Votes, Our Jobs, Our Schools Matter." The march coincides with the 50th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act and will feature rallies and teach-ins along the route, ending in a rally in Washington, D.C.

On Thursday, June 25, hundreds of activists, including a busload of CWAers, will rally in Roanoke, Va., to mark the second anniversary of the Supreme Court's Shelby County v. Holder decision that gutted the Voting Rights Act and to call for action to defend the right to vote.

Wade Henderson, president and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, said this action will focus on the failure of Rep. Bob Goodlatte, who chairs the House Judiciary Committee and represents the Roanoke area congressional district, to acknowledge widespread voting discrimination or allow a committee hearing. "Virginians currently live under racially gerrymandered districts and understand that protecting voting rights for all means holding Congress and Rep. Goodlatte accountable for ignoring the responsibility to act."