In the coming months, you will be told the 2024 Election is the most consequential election since, well, the last presidential election. The hype notwithstanding, the right to vote is the right that secures all other rights. If voting didn’t matter, conservatives would not try to block access to the ballot box.
National Voter Registration Day, the country’s largest single-day voter registration drive, is September 19, 2023. Since 2012, more than five million Americans have been registered to vote on this civic holiday.
Your vote matters. You can register to vote here. If you are already registered, check your status to make sure you are #VoteReady. And on Election Day, be careful how you vote.
Thousands gathered in the nation’s capitol to mark the 60th anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Organizers said the march was “not a commemoration, but a continuation” of the work of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
The march was convened by Rev. Al Sharpton, founder and president of the National Action Network and Martin Luther King III, board chairman of the Drum Major Institute. Co-Chairs include the NAACP, Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, National Coalition on Black Civic Participation and the National Urban League.
To commemorate the 60th anniversary of the March on Washington, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture has on display the original three-page “I Have a Dream” speech that Dr. King delivered on August 28, 1963. NMAAHC Director Kevin Young said:
The words of all its speakers resonate six decades later, and we serve as witnesses to the bravery and dedication of its organizers. To be able to show visitors the copy of the “I Have a Dream” speech King read and improvised from while at the podium is an honor and privilege.
Dr. King’s speech will be on display until September 18, 2023 in NMAAHC’s Defending Freedom, Defining Freedom: The Era of Segregation 1876–1968 Gallery.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., a drum major for justice, was born on January 15, 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia.
Legends recognize legends. Jazz pianist Herbie Hancock dedicated his 1969 album, The Prisoner, to Dr. King. In his 2014 memoir Possibilities, Herbie wrote:
It was a concept album focusing on the struggle for civil rights. The Prisoner reflected the beginnings of my new musical directions.
The 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified on February 3, 1870.
Section 1 of the Reconstruction Amendment reads:
The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.
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