MLK Day 2022

This year, the family of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. has requested that Americans honor Dr. King’s legacy by supporting equitable voting legislation, which is currently in a vulnerable and precarious state. 

• In 2020, it became illegal to hand out food or water to people standing in line to vote in Georgia.
• In 2021, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a law that will deleteriously impact BIPOC voters’ ability to challenge state laws in Arizona.
• In 2021, major changes were made to voting laws to make voting more difficult in Texas.
• In 2021, several similar bills to protect national voting rights were blocked.

The Rutland Area and Windham County NAACP Branches are encouraging education over celebration this year.

Resources:

• Martin Luther King Jr.’s family calls for ‘no celebration’ of MLK Day without action on voting rights legislation
  
• The Freedom to Vote Act

• John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act

• Lifting as We Climb: Black Women’s Battle for the Ballot Box, by Evette Dionne

• The racist 1890 law that’s still blocking thousands of Black Americans from voting
  
• Voting Rights Act

Click here to download this information as a Powerpoint that you can use in your classroom.