Dear Friend,
Last week we joined hundreds of thousands of people across the country celebrating the life and legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr. Dr. King's message of equality, peace and social justice is as important and as powerful today as it was 45 years ago.
I was lucky enough to attend the annual King Day at the Dome event in Columbia, South Carolina, where we were joined by the three leading candidates in the race for the Democratic Presidential nomination. NAACP is a non-partisan organization, and we did invite the Republican candidates, but none of them were able to attend.
A crowd of almost 7,000 listened while the three candidates talked about what the legacy of Dr. King meant to them, and afterwards the crowd marched to the State House to demand that the Confederate flag be removed from the building.
It was a truly perfect way to spend MLK Day - actively participating in the ongoing struggle for equality. And over the weekend, as South Carolina chose among the Democratic field, we were reminded of another critically important way that we can all participate: Use your vote; it's a right and a responsibility.
If you're not registered to vote, you can click here to register and register there, or you can call the National Voter Registration Hotline at 1-866-MYVOTE1 (1-866-698-6831). If you know someone who is not registered, please encourage them to get registered.
Forty years after the hard-fought passage of the Voting Rights Act, and 80 years after women's suffrage, the frontrunners for the Democratic nomination are an African American man and a woman. No matter what the outcome, this is already an historic election. Make sure that you are a part of that history.
Stand up and be counted on Election Day.
Sincerely,
Dennis Courtland Hayes
Interim President & CEO
NAACP
Last week we joined hundreds of thousands of people across the country celebrating the life and legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr. Dr. King's message of equality, peace and social justice is as important and as powerful today as it was 45 years ago.
I was lucky enough to attend the annual King Day at the Dome event in Columbia, South Carolina, where we were joined by the three leading candidates in the race for the Democratic Presidential nomination. NAACP is a non-partisan organization, and we did invite the Republican candidates, but none of them were able to attend.
A crowd of almost 7,000 listened while the three candidates talked about what the legacy of Dr. King meant to them, and afterwards the crowd marched to the State House to demand that the Confederate flag be removed from the building.
It was a truly perfect way to spend MLK Day - actively participating in the ongoing struggle for equality. And over the weekend, as South Carolina chose among the Democratic field, we were reminded of another critically important way that we can all participate: Use your vote; it's a right and a responsibility.
If you're not registered to vote, you can click here to register and register there, or you can call the National Voter Registration Hotline at 1-866-MYVOTE1 (1-866-698-6831). If you know someone who is not registered, please encourage them to get registered.
Forty years after the hard-fought passage of the Voting Rights Act, and 80 years after women's suffrage, the frontrunners for the Democratic nomination are an African American man and a woman. No matter what the outcome, this is already an historic election. Make sure that you are a part of that history.
Stand up and be counted on Election Day.
Sincerely,
Dennis Courtland Hayes
Interim President & CEO
NAACP
