EDITORIAL: MLK Day requires action, not words
As voting rights are threatened, more robust steps must be taken to safeguard voters' access to the ballot
This past Monday, we recognized the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. — a groundbreaking civil rights leader whose devotion to equality under the law helped move the nation toward living up to its lofty ideals.
Martin Luther King Jr. Day is often a moment for leaders to step back and offer their thoughts. Something, though, about those commitments this year felt even more hollow than usual.
At a time when voting rights are under assault throughout the country, it is hard to accept just words and platitudes from elected officials.
After the 2020 election, a record-breaking year for turnout rates, some Republican-controlled states began to roll out legislation that would make it harder to vote. Some contentious actions taken include imposing stricter voter identification laws and furthering voter purges.
A jarring example of efforts to make voting harder comes from Lincoln County, Georgia. The county board of elections has proposed a plan to reduce the number of polling places — currently seven — all the way down to a single location, despite the county’s population growth in the past decade.
Fewer polling places accompanying other actions disenfranchise voters across the spectrum of race, ethnicity and class: the very communities for which King fought. Examples such as Lincoln County point to the need for robust federal election reform. Furthermore, it demonstrates the need for action to be taken to defend and expand voting.
Lincoln County, though, also points to another issue: Lincoln County is a small, rural county in Georgia, one that might get lost in the national debate. Yet, it is exactly for counties like Lincoln that we need to center voting rights. If a small county can be forgotten, if their voters do not matter, our democracy weakens.
The issues in Lincoln County underscore the need for federal election reform. Indeed, King's granddaughter, Yolanda King, made the importance of election reform abundantly clear when she argued in favor of passing the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. She insisted that politicians take action, saying "do not celebrate, legislate."
Legislating, doing the hard work, is King's legacy — it would be passing election reform and safeguarding voting. Yet, these efforts have failed due to the Senate filibuster, which requires a supermajority of 60 votes to pass legislation.
It is disappointing to see such a disconnect between what politicians are saying and what they are doing. While we must continue to pressure the Senate to end the filibuster and pass legislation that protects voting rights, it is also incumbent upon us to focus on things we can control.
As so many issues originate at the local level, a great way to get involved and make change is through engaging in local, grassroots, community organizing to make sure elected officials do not mess with voting.
In the face of such challenges, inspiration can still be found. In Lincoln County, voting rights activist Reverend Denise Freeman has led an effort to prevent the closure of polling places. As a result of her efforts, the county board of elections has temporarily suspended any plans to close polling places. Old school organizing, clearly, can still make an impact.
While it might be hard as college students in New Jersey to sympathize with people facing such challenges, we all value our country and our democracy — we want to see it at its best, not its worst. We must continue to be engaged, we must continue to fight and organize for the things that matter.
One way to remain engaged is to participate in events that stress our unifying humanity. Rutgers—Newark, for example, hosted an MLK Day of Service – Racial Healing Circle, in which community members came together, shared their stories and created a bond. These types of events honor King’s legacy, as they bring people together and chart a path toward a future where our common humanity is celebrated.
While it is always nice to hear politicians speak about King, to truly honor his legacy would be to undertake the hard work of citizenship. King once said that “we must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.” We must continue the fight, we must continue making the U.S. a more perfect union.
The Daily Targum's editorials represent the views of the majority of the 153rd editorial board. Columns, cartoons and letters do not necessarily reflect the views of the Targum Publishing Company or its staff.
