Wright Brothers collection, Prints & Photographs Division, Library of Congress, LC-ppmsca-04598.
This Martin Luther King Jr. Day, our country is still reeling from a violent attack on our country at the US Capitol by white nationalists. As we at the Sierra Club think about how to move forward and repair our democracy, we return to the words Dr. King spoke at the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom at the Lincoln Memorial, down the Mall from the US Capitol.
“We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now,” he told the assembled crowd. “This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy.”
Black Americans, and other people of color in this country, have been denied “the promises of democracy” for over 400 years. Today, as in Dr. King’s day, “all types of conniving methods are still being used to prevent” people of color from accessing the polls. King’s fight to ensure that all Americans are able to vote, regardless of the color of their skin, is far from over.
This Martin Luther King Day, we hope that you will join us in recommitting to that fight. The “fierce urgency of now” is clear. Our country is under attack from antidemocratic, white supremacist forces. It’s also struggling through some of the darkest days of the COVID-19 pandemic, spiking unemployment, and a climate crisis that disproportionately harms communities of color.
But none of these issues can be fully addressed without accountability for those responsible for inciting the violent attempted coup at the Capitol. Our democracy is only as strong as our will to defend and exercise it. That’s why we are calling for Donald Trump’s removal from office and the expulsion of the Congressional Republicans who are complicit in this attack on our democracy.
We must also repair our democracy so that it represents the will of all people. Right now, campaign donors and corporations have more power and influence in government than us, the people, unless we stay engaged. That’s why positions like failing to act on climate change, which are unpopular with the vast majority of Americans, retain such sway in the halls of Congress.
If we want to end the climate crisis, root out racial injustice, and offer every American the support they need to make it through this pandemic, we must work to repair, restore, and advance our democracy and ensure that our voices, and our solutions, can be heard. We must roll back the voter suppression laws that target voters of color, promote civic engagement, stop gerrymandering, and tamp down on the power of money in politics.
As in Dr. King’s day, the work of restoring our democracy requires all of us. The modern civil rights movement needed not only charismatic leaders like King -- it also needed the ordinary people who organized carpools during the Montgomery bus boycott, or who registered voters in counties where Black political and economic participation was often met with violence.
This election season, we overcame voter suppression and racist campaigning to elect new leaders who will care, represent and govern for all of us as we build our shared future. Now is the moment to urge them to protect and strengthen our democracy. We can no longer allow the voices of racists to overpower that of our multiracial majority, which is clamoring for jobs, justice, and transformative change.