Sharpton Leads DC March Over Gutted Voting Act

Sharpton, founder of the National Action Network, told the Associated Press this year's rally carries more weight than past ones. "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," he said. "Marches are designed to grab attention and then go into the trenches and organize around that."

Fields, the Louisiana Democrat at the center of the April ruling, said in a texted statement to the AP: "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. 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." He added: "The people taking part in this historic march are answering back, and history will remember that they did."

Rep. Shomari Figures, an Alabama Democrat whose majority-black district was targeted by his state's Republican-led redistricting effort, cast the march as a continuation of the original movement. "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," he told the AP.

NAACP President Derrick Johnson said in a Thursday statement: "We will not stand idly by while the voices of the people are silenced. We must protect every eligible citizen's right to cast their ballot."

The right saw it differently. Citizen Free Press headlined its live coverage: "Democrats hold DC rally to keep fraudulent elections legal."