Voting rights march leaders honor the sacrifice made by foot troopers killed throughout the civil rights period

Evers, a NAACP foreign minister and civil rights activist who organized voter registrations, boycotts, and protests against school segregation, was shot in the back by a white racist in his driveway in June 1963.

Jackson, a church deacon, was shot in the stomach by an Alabama State Trooper while trying to protect his mother during a march for the suffrage in Marion, Alabama, in February 1965.

Despite the anger and grief over her death, the civil rights movement pressed on, activists and protesters marched on, and in August 1965 President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Suffrage Bill banning racial discrimination in elections.

Leaders of today’s movement say they carry the same spirit of resilience with them as they campaign for Congress to pass a federal electoral law that contradicts state-level laws that they claim oppress black and brown voters. The March on for Voting Rights will be held in Washington DC, Atlanta, Houston, Phoenix and Miami on Saturday to pressure the Senate to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, which increases the federal government’s powers to block discriminatory measures Electoral rules, or the bill, was passed in the House of Representatives earlier this week, but faces an uphill battle with the Senate as most Republicans oppose it. And on Friday, after months of Democratic delays, Texas House passed a law restricting Republican voting. Opponents warned the bill would make voting harder for people of color, who often support Democrats, and disabled people – in part by banning the nightly and drive-through voting Houston held during the 2020 election.

The mass mobilization on Saturday marks the 58th anniversary of the historic March on Washington, where Martin Luther King Jr. gave his “I Have a Dream” speech. This march came just two months after Evers’ death. Following national protests following the death of George Floyd, an anniversary march was held in Washington last year.

The March On for Voting Rights comes after the arrest of several civil rights activists and lawmakers this summer who are protesting the suppression of voters. Among them were Rev. Jesse Jackson, Rev. William J. Barber II, Cliff Albright, Rep. Hank Johnson, and Rep. Joyce Beatty.

Rev. Al Sharpton, who led the march on Saturday, said the deaths of Jimmie Lee Jackson and Evers taught many that the road to equality is never easy. A few weeks after Jackson’s death in 1965, John Lewis was beaten so badly by white police officers that he fractured his skull on Bloody Sunday. Lewis and others marched for the right to vote across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama.

“It was always dark before the light broke through,” said Sharpton. “We come from this tradition.”

A persistent struggle

Civil rights icon Andrew Young said the death of Jimmie Lee Jackson was actually the breaking point that led to the Selma March. Jackson, who had just returned from Vietnam, attended his first march in Marion, Alabama with his mother and grandfather when he was shot to protect his mother from being beaten.

Young remembered marching six miles to the cemetery with other leaders from Jackson’s funeral at a local church in the freezing rain. Frustrated by Jackson’s death, they began planning their next step: They wanted to march from Selma to Montgomery to claim voting rights.

Police violence and white racists would never end their struggle, Young said.

“When someone gets killed, if they do something right, you have to send people there to take their place,” said Young. “Because if you don’t, send the message that all you have to do is kill someone to stop us.”

Mary Marcus, a friend of Jimmie Lee Jackson’s family, said Jackson was not a vocal civil rights activist. He was a quiet man who mostly supported the behind-the-scenes movement, including his mother and grandfather on the day of his shooting for the march. Young said Jackson occasionally volunteered to register voters.

Marcus said she hoped activists today understand that the struggle for equality often requires sacrifices from more than just civil rights activists, but also from the foot soldiers behind the scenes.

“His (Jackson’s) role was to support those who supported the movement,” said Marion’s Marcus, 62. “When it was his turn to come to someone else’s aid, he did. As a result, he lost his life.”

A historic victory

Months after Jimmie Lee Jackson was murdered and the Selma March took place, Congress passed the 1965 Suffrage Act and Johnson signed it.

Young recalled going to the White House with Martin Luther King Jr. to meet with Johnson, who insisted he didn’t have enough votes from Congress to pass the bill.

But Selma, Young said, influenced public opinion about voting rights and led lawmakers to back the bill. He believes that today’s activists can learn from the power of their organizing.

“We stirred up the nation,” said Young. “That convinced the citizens of the need to protect the right to vote, and that gave the president power.”

Pastor Jesse Jackson, who was hospitalized last week for Covid-19, said in a statement that he will not be attending the march on Saturday and is still receiving medical attention.

Jackson called on the nation to march in either DC or at a local demonstration, pressuring Congress to pass federal voting laws. He said the right to vote is key to getting jobs, raising the minimum wage, reforming the criminal justice system, expanding health care and improving public education.

“So we want everyone to put their walking shoes on and keep them on until everyone’s voting rights are protected,” said Jackson. “Go ahead and keep hope alive.”

Martin Luther King III, the eldest son of King Jr., who is also leading the march on Saturday, said he saw the fervor of protesters gathering across the country after Floyd’s death and showing up at last year’s anniversary march.

And while the 1963 March on Washington ultimately resulted in important voting legislation – one of their top demands alongside jobs and civil rights – efforts to suppress voters in recent years have been a backlash, King said.

Many of the tactics used to disenfranchise black and brown voters are “a more sophisticated form of Jim Crow,” King said.

King said he hoped the Saturday March would send the message that there was an urgent need to seek voting rights. He said it was “terrifying” that state legislatures were making laws that put them in control of election results.

“We’re not going to just lounge around and let our rights be undermined,” King said. “My hope is that the community will understand that this is enough. We won’t give up. “