As Black voters face a new wave of attacks on their right to cast ballots, the legacy of U.S. Rep. John Lewis serves as a source of inspiration for community organizers who are fighting back.
On July 17, the sixth anniversary of the civil rights icon’s passing, Women on the Rise led a group of advocates and Atlanta residents on a march to honor Lewis and draw inspiration from his years as an activist.
Melodie Rosser, the campaign and membership supervisor at Women on the Rise who helped to organize the march, said they chose to stop at City Hall, the state Capitol and the county government buildings because too many people have no idea what goes on in those buildings.
“I grew up in Capitol Homes,” Rosser said, referring to the since-demolished public housing project less than a mile from the Gold Dome. “I never knew that I could just come off the street and go into the Capitol.”
“We want our members and our communities to know that these are the places that change happens,” she said. “Our voices need to be the voices at the forefront when decisions are made in these buildings.”
In June, Republican legislators planned to hold a special legislative session to redraw state and congressional district boundaries in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court decision to strike down Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.
On the day the session was scheduled to begin, hundreds of Georgia residents and voting rights advocates flooded the Capitol in opposition to redistricting, which was largely seen as an effort to strip Black voters of political power.
Just before the redistricting session was scheduled to begin, state House and Senate Republicans gathered on the south steps of the Capitol to announce they had decided to cancel the special session and wait until the next regular session in January to begin the process.
Despite the temporary victory at the Capitol, Black voters in metro Atlanta feel uneasy about the future.
“I worry about voting,” said Lillian Santiago, a resident of southwest DeKalb County.
Santiago said she felt it was important for her to be at the march Friday because it helps to keep Lewis’ memory alive, especially now.
“Even if only two people came, I came so we can say something [so] that people will remember that they have to register and vote,” she said.
The 72-year-old Afro-Puerto Rican said she was the first person in her family born in the continental United States and is worried Immigration and Customs Enforcement will show up at the polls to intimidate naturalized citizens.
“But we can overcome that if enough of us go out to the polls,” Santiago said.
She and the other marchers began at Atlanta City Hall, walked up Washington Street past the Capitol, down Martin Luther King Jr. Drive to the Fulton County courthouse and government building before ending back at City Hall.
The peaceful afternoon created a stark contrast from the 1965 march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, when a 25-year-old Lewis was beaten so severely by Alabama state troopers that he suffered a skull fracture.
In a statement to Capital B Atlanta, U.S. Rep. Nikema Williams, who was elected to succeed Lewis in Georgia’s 5th Congressional District, said Lewis’ “unwavering commitment to justice, equality, and voting rights helped bend the arc of our nation toward a more perfect union.”
“Today, and every day, we honor his legacy by continuing that lifelong struggle — for justice, for equality, for voting rights, not simply by remembering his words but by living them and getting into some Good Trouble along the way,” Williams said.
Rosser said she hopes the march will inspire others to speak up for what’s right, just as Lewis inspired her.
“I did 20 years in prison here in Georgia, and to see him out here, a man that looks like my uncle, to see him out here doing his thing, it made me think I can be like that,” she said.
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