Family members of the civil rights activist Martin Luther King, Jr. organized a rally in Arizona supporting federal voting rights legislation.
Martin Luther King III, the late doctor’s eldest son, his wife Andrea Waters King and their 13-year-old daughter, held the rally at the Pilgrim Rest Baptist Church, a predominantly Black church in Phoenix.
“Arizona, in one sense, is near ground zero, I say near because unfortunately, there are 19 states that have passed regressive laws, including our own state of Georgia,” King III told MSNBC‘s, Vaughn Hillyard. “And we believe that as it relates to getting this, these bills passed, that Senator Sinema has been one of the challenges. And so it made sense to come to Arizona. Some regressive laws, we feel, have been put in place that make it harder for people to vote.”
The rally came on the heels of Arizona Senator Kyrsten Sinema’s speech expressing her support to uphold the legislative filibuster. “We must address the disease itself, the disease of division, to protect our democracy,” Sinema said.
Mr. King said he was “greatly disappointed” by Sinema’s speech,” adding that “every last one of these states that have passed these regressive laws have done it with all Republican legislatures, not bipartisan support. So that, to me, seems to be not a sufficient argument.”
Mrs. King echoed her husband’s concerns: “We have to have federal voting rights protection laws passed and we must have them passed now. You can go to deliverforvotingrights.com. You need to call your senators, you need to sign petitions and make your voices heard on this matter.”
