Major US Civil Rights Group to March to Washington for Equal Voting Rights

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — The march, called America’s Journey for Justice, is expected to last through September 16, and will also commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act that helped end segregation and exclusion of minorities in the US political process.

“We're embarking on this journey to show the entire nation that our lives, our votes, our jobs, and our schools matter,” NAACP’s President Cornell William Brooks said in a statement on Tuesday.

Activists from US labor, civil and environmental groups will walk some 860 miles from Selma, Alabama, and will make stops in several states, including Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia, to highlight “vulnerable communities subject to regressive voting rights tactics,” the group said.

“If we want to force lawmakers to stop dragging their feet on the issues that matter to us, we need to come together…Our ability to gather in large numbers, attract the attention of the media, and make our voices heard in the streets will bring us to victory.”

A study by the Government Accountability Office unveiled in September 2014 found that people of color are less likely to possess government-issued photo identification cards than whites, being the reason for voter turnout decrease in US states that established voter identification laws.

In the 2010 midterm election, African-Americans' turnout rate was 44 percent, Hispanic turnout stood at 31 percent, compared to the 49 percent turnout by Caucasian citizens, according to US Census Data.

Over the past year, US President Barack Obama has launched several policy initiatives in the wake of renewed calls to counter racial bias. The initiatives include investing in police body-worn cameras for US law enforcement agencies across the country, and a plan to address segregation in US neighborhoods.