The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for Jan. 15, 2024
Today’s Script
(Variations occur with audio due to editing for time. Today’s Links below the script)
You’re listening to the American Democracy Minute, keeping YOUR government by and for the people.
On May 9, 1966, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke in Kingstree, SC about the importance of voting on the eve of a state primary. Here are his words:
“Let us on that glad day in June march on ballot boxes, for this is the way we’re going to straighten up the South and the nation.
Let us march on ballot boxes until somehow we will be able to develop that day men will have food and material necessities for their bodies, freedom and dignity for their spirits, and education and culture for their mind.
Let us march on ballot boxes so that men and women will no longer walk the streets in search of jobs that do not exist.
Let us march on ballot boxes until the empty stomachs of Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and South Carolina are filled.
Let us march on ballot boxes until the idle industries of Appalachia are revitalized.
Let us march on ballot boxes until ‘brotherhood’ is more than a meaningless word and at the end of a prayer but the first order of business on every Legislature’s slate or agenda. Let us march on ballot boxes.
Let us march on ballot boxes until every valley shall be exalted, until every mountain and hill shall be made low, until the rough places are made plain and the crooked places straight and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all of bloods shall sing together.”
We’ve linked to more of Dr. King’s speech, archived at theUniversity of South Carolina’s Moving Image Research Collections at AmericanDemocracyMinute.org. I’m Brian Beihl
Today’s Links
Articles & Resources:
WLTX – (2020) ‘Let us march on ballot boxes:’ Words spoken by Martin Luther King Jr. in 1966 resonate in 2020
University of South Carolina’s Moving Image Research Collections (MIRC) – Martin Luther King Jr. on voting
Equal Justice Initiative – Dr. King and Hundreds of Voting Rights Activists Arrested
Lee Saunders, American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) – (Opinion) Advancing Dr. King’s voting rights legacy
U.S. Election Assistance Commission – How to Register and Vote in Your State
Groups Taking Action:
NAACP, Black Voters Matter, Vote.org, League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), Rock the Vote, League of Women Voters Vote 411
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