WASHINGTON — Thousands of protesters are rallying Friday on the National Mall in support of voting rights and racial justice ahead of the midterm elections, following a wave of changes to voting laws and redistricting that civil rights groups have condemned as detrimental to Black Americans. The 2026 “Defend the Vote” March on Washington, organized by the Rev. Al Sharpton and Martin Luther King III, echoes the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s 1963 march. The event follows the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark April decision in Louisiana v. Callais that reinterpreted key provisions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, allowing Southern states to redraw their congressional maps in a way that erodes equal representation in Black communities. “We’ve been doing these marches for years, but this is probably the most important because this is the first year we are marching that the voting rights bill has been nullified by the Supreme Court,” Sharpton, founder of the National Action Network, said in an interview with The Associated Press. The march opened with prayer and statements from Interfaith Alliance representatives, who spoke on diversity, equity and inclusion practices, voting rights and systemic racism. “Creator of all, let us draw on each other, with love and mercy, and hold each other up as we march, wipe each other’s tears, heal each other’s wounds,” Ambereen Kahn, an Interfaith Alliance representative, said. “Most compassionate, protect our leaders who guide, instill in their hearts the values of our shared humanity.” This year’s march, which Sharpton’s group is co-hosting with King’s Drum Major Institute, a progressive think tank and community action group, features dozens of speakers, including Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y. Event echoes iconic Lincoln Memorial rally Friday’s event harkens back to King Jr.’s historic March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963, when more than 200,000 people gathered at the foot of the Lincoln Memorial. That march, an inflection point in the Civil Rights Movement, came at a fraught moment, when economic headwinds, civil unrest, political division and the Vietnam War bitterly divided Americans. King III told the AP that the work of the Civil Rights movement “is further eroding” in the wake of the high court’s April ruling. He said his father would be disappointed with the state of the country, but current civil rights advocates should be undaunted. “Had he lived, we’d be on a totally different trajectory,” the younger King said. “These would not be issues; they would have been resolved. I don’t think he would be surprised because he understands our history and understands those who are trying to retain power. But the challenge is challenging our communities to engage even more.” For Courtney Pope, 48, the rally is about finding community alongside promoting voting rights. “I know that we’ll only be successful if we band together despite our differences,” Pope said. Pope on Thursday marched across the King Bridge to the Civil Rights Museum in Memphis before heading to the nation’s capital. Cook County Clerk Monica Gordon, 48, runs the election centre in Chicago and said she was at the march to promote the safety of mail-in votes. Royanor Kaharonkwas, a matriarch of the Onkwehonwe tribe, meanwhile held up her tribe’s flag: orange, with a yellow sun outlining a man’s head. Kaharonkwas said that while everyone has their individual fight at the march, they make up a larger fight involving all of humanity. “I love the fact that (the march) brings the people together in unity,” Kaharonkwas said. Sharpton said the Trump administration’s immigration policy for Haitians and white South Africans, as well as cuts to social programs like Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act’s health subsidies, are unifying policies for this year’s diverse march attendees. But the redistricting efforts by Republican-led states set to reduce the number of Black lawmakers in Congress loom large. “This march is about people who refuse to be counted out. When the courts and the legislature broke apart District 6, they did not just redraw lines,” Rep. Cleo Fields, D-La., said in a texted statement. “They told hundreds of thousands of Black families from Baton Rouge up through the Delta that their voice could be taken away at any moment.” Fields was the central character in the Supreme Court decision that hollowed out the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The court ruled that his district, created just one term ago to permit a second majority-Black district in a state where Blacks make up 33 per cent of the population, was unconstitutional because it relied too heavily on race. The court has held that maps can be redrawn for partisan reasons. Louisiana’s legislature rushed to redraw the district after the decision, reshaping Fields’ district to cluster it around predominantly white communities in the Baton Rouge area and southern Louisiana. Fields has opted not to seek reelection to Congress and instead is pursuing a seat in the state Senate. Embattled Black lawmakers see need for continued rights push Rep. Shomari Figures, an Alabama Democrat whose majority-Black district was targeted by the state’s Republican-led redistricting effort, said the original voting rights fight required local movements, national figures, lots of coordination and strategy. He sees this year’s march as a continuation of that legacy. “My district includes Montgomery, which was the birthplace of it all. It started with a bus boycott in 1955 and that, ultimately, morphed into a broader struggle for civil rights and led to a more broad Civil Rights Movement,” Figures told the AP. “It led to a Civil Rights Act, led to the Fair Housing Act, led obviously to the Voting Rights Act, and the voting rights movement,” Figures added. Ahead of Friday, organizations participating in the march filed new claims in their federal lawsuit against U.S. President Donald Trump’s executive order restricting mail-in voting. The Supreme Court cleared a path Monday for possible implementation of the order, though it remains unclear how much can be put in place before the midterms. Associated Press writers Gary Fields in Washington and Kimberly Chandler in Montgomery, Alabama, contributed. Matt Brown And Matthew Junkroski, The Associated Press
