August 08, 2005
NAACP Leads Thousands In March To Extend The Voting Rights Act
NAACP Joins Rainbow Push Coalition and estimated 15,000 demonstrators in Atlanta

“We will stand up and fight for the Voting Rights Act until our work is done,” Gordon said at a post march rally at Morris Brown College’s Herdon Stadium. “We will not be beaten today. We must keep the vote alive.” 

More than 8,000 NAACP members, from as far away as California and wearing yellow shirts emblazoned, “Keep the Vote Alive,” joined the coalition of civil rights groups led by Gordon and the Rev. Jesse Jackson, the head of Operation PUSH. 

The Rev. Nelson B. Rivers III, NAACP Chief Operating Officer, introduced Gordon at the rally. “The NAACP is proud to come to Atlanta today from the length and breath of this nation to demand that Congress and the President extend the Voting Rights Act,” said Rivers.

The marchers began at the Russell Federal Building and proceeded down Martin Luther King Drive nearly a mile to the stadium. Civil rights activists were joined by political leaders and entertainers, including Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin, Congressmen John Lewis (D-Ga.) and Charlie Rangel (D-N.Y.), the Rev. Joseph Lowery, Ambassador Andrew Young, and Harry Belafonte. Other participants included Reps. Cynthia McKinney (D-Ga.), Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) and John Conyers (D-Mich.); Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.); House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.); Illinois state Rep. Connie Howard and State Sen. James Meeks; John Sweeney, president of the AFL-CIO; Andy Stern, president of the Service Employees International Union; Judge Greg Mathis, Stevie Wonder; John Legend, Roberta Flack and comedian and activist Dick Gregory.

NAACP march organizers included Georgia Noone, Director of Branch and Field Services, Region 5 director Rev. Charles White, and Chief of Programs John Johnson. 

In addition to the Voting Rights Act, demonstrators also used the rally to protest Georgia's recently passed voter identification law, which Gordon said, is "the most outrageous, oppressive, discriminatory" law he'd ever seen.

The NAACP plans to conduct an aggressive, grassroots national campaign to support the reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act, including state and local hearings to develop a full and factual record of voting rights violations. “People need to understand if this act is not reauthorized and improved, we will lose the progress of the last 40 years," Gordon said.

The Voting Rights Act is credited with increasing minority participation in the political process and empowering minority communities to elect thousands of African American candidates to local, state and federal office. President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Act into law in 1965. It is designed to prevent voting barriers to voting such as: intimidation, voter harassment, the poll tax, English only voting instructions, literacy tests, racial gerrymandering and other tools of disenfranchisement. The Act further guarantees that no federal, state or local government shall in any way impede or discourage people from registering to vote or voting because of their race or color. Portions of the Act are due to expire in 2007.

The NAACP is the United States’ oldest and largest civil rights organization, dedicated for 96 years to achieving equality for African-Americans and fighting racial discrimination against anyone. Its half-million members in 2200 local units scattered throughout the 50 states, Europe and the Pacific are the front-line grassroots troops for racial justice in their communities.