The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. bequeathed to the nation a message of peace, racial justice and non-violence.<\/p>\n
Across the decades, since King\u2019s work and words were immortalized, those ideals have arguably been elusive for Black Americans.<\/p>\n
Seldom though, some say, has the assault on racial justice been as concerted as in recent times.<\/p>\n
As the country commemorates King\u2019s life and legacy, many Black Americans say they are disheartened by what they see as a systemic assault on racial justice and civil rights, one that puts King\u2019s message to the test.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think his legacy is still here. I think there are warriors who are willing to work on behalf of the people,\u201d said Kadida Kenner, founding executive director of the New Pennsylvania Project,<\/a> a voting rights organization.<\/p>\n \u201cHis legacy will never be destroyed. It seems to me that any time we make progress on racial issues, even on economic equality, we regress for a moment, but we find our center again and we get back to what is important.\u201d<\/p>\n Black scholars and social activists say the events of recent years – the killings of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor, among many others, and the sustained racial disparities affecting health and economic welfare and the reemergence of white supremacy \u2014 serve as reminders that racial justice continues to be an illusory ideal.<\/p>\n Nowhere is the assault on King\u2019s legacy as stark, Black Americans say, than in the mounting assault on voting rights across the country.<\/p>\n Black Americans overwhelmingly say that the racial justice ideals preached by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. have been largely elusive for them – and in recent chaotic times, even less so. <\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n \u201cWe talk about the fact that Republicans and Democrats aren\u2019t working together,\u201d said Kenner, whose voting rights organization is modeled after the successful New Georgia Project founded by Stacey Abrams in 2014. \u201cWhat concerns me is that even at the height of the Civil Rights Movement, when people were getting bloody and killed, there were still Republicans willing to work across the aisle.\u201d<\/p>\n As President Joe Biden noted this week, voting rights reauthorization legislation has historically received overwhelming bipartisan support. That\u2019s no longer the case, Kenner said.<\/p>\n \u201cIn this moment we don\u2019t have a single Republican willing to reauthorize voting rights,\u201d Kenner said. \u201cThat\u2019s concerning. I think in this moment we are so politicized, so concerned with remaining in power, that we are willing to do things we didn\u2019t do in the height of the 1960s.\u201d<\/p>\n As Congress faces the unlikely passage of laws protecting voter rights, social activists say efforts to disenfranchise minority voters are a setback for racial justice \u2014 and as such, a deliberate erosion of King\u2019s legacy.<\/p>\n \u201cThere were a lot of people throughout the Civil Rights struggle who made the ultimate sacrifice and now that sacrifice is being cheapened every time someone tries to introduce voting rights restrictions,\u201d said Joseph Robinson, head of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Leadership Development Institute in Harrisburg.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is disheartening. Their sacrifice, their contribution to this country is being marginalized and devalued every time efforts are made to introduce changes that would prohibit or limit people\u2019s access to voting. It\u2019s a disservice to all those willing to pay the ultimate price, including Dr. King.\u201d<\/p>\n Since the November 2020 presidential election, nearly 400 bills have been introduced in 48 states to restrict voting rights; approximately 34 of those bills have been ratified.<\/p>\n Amid a deeply divided Senate, Democrats are making a renewed push to get federal voting legislation \u2014 the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act and the Freedom to Vote Act \u2014 through the high chamber. The bills are widely seen as imperative for the protection of voting rights, particularly those of minorities.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think Dr. King would be surprised at what is happening,\u201d Kenner said. \u201cHe knew our democracy was fragile and we had to continue to fight. We took our guard down. We got complacent and comfortable.\u201d<\/p>\n Black scholars note that the racial justice movement in this country has been plotted on a trajectory of evolving challenges from Jim Crow and the fight for equality in education, to employment and the voting booth.<\/p>\n The current struggles are merely the latest chapter in the narrative.<\/p>\n![\"MLK](\"https:\/\/www.pennlive.com\/resizer\/SXUW9hoJToNJxjzuIUjMrAbCqJU=\/1280x0\/smart\/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com\/advancelocal\/PXFCYUOQXVC63EAGF7TBFVGEDE.jpg\")