Creating a Powerful, Broad-Based Moral Movement.

AuthorBarber, William J., II

In the face of rising voter-suppression efforts across the country we are witnessing a growing movement that builds on the proud history of the 1960s civil rights era. To be successful, today's voting rights and economic justice advocates must apply two key lessons from the courageous activists of a half-century ago

First and foremost, the voting rights movement of 2021 needs to reject the pressure to isolate voting rights from a broader moral economic agenda. The U.S. Constitution enshrines the interconnected commitments to "establish justice" and "promote the general welfare."

There is a tactical temptation to win support on voting rights from political and corporate leaders who oppose demands for economic rights. Defenders of such tac tics might point to the pro-voting rights statements earlier this year by hundreds of corporate chief executives and companies as an example of success.

William J. Barber II speaks as Jesse Jackson and Liz Theoharis, right, look on at the Poor People's Campaign Moral Monday demonstration and civil disobedience action near the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on August 2,2021.

The Reverend Dr. William J. Barber II is the president of Repairers of the Breach and a co-chair of the Poor People's Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival. The Reverend Liz Theoharis is director of the Kairos Center and a co-chair of the Poor People's Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival. The Reverend Jesse L. Jackson Sr. is an elder of the civil rights movement and president of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition. Sarah Anderson directs the Global Economy Project at the Institute for Policy Studies.

But after scoring some public relations points, those chief executives have largely fallen silent as corporate America's top lobbying group, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, leads the charge against bills to protect voting rights and those to raise the minimum wage to $15 per hour.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and other wise civil rights leaders of his day knew that such tactics would weaken, rather than strengthen, their cause. To inspire a broad mass movement for change, they couldn't take a righteous stand on one moral issue while biting their tongues on others.

The movement for voting rights and economic justice must help people understand that voter suppression is not just a "Black issue."

In fact, King never led a single-issue march. The 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, for instance, made clear that economic and...

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