By D’Yonce Sade Williamson, Contributing Writer
The 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom was a massive peaceful protest. People gathered at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. to advocate for civil, economic, and labor rights for Black Americans. Sixty-three years to the day, with passion for positive change, we marched again for our unalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Two hundred fifty years later, we still behold these truths to be self-evident, America. Is it too much to ask for your policy to reflect that all men and women are created equal? Sixty-three years later, your most resilient laborers still pose you the question, may you judge us not by the color of our skin but by the contents of our character? I believe it’s safe to say, we’ve been here before, but why are we here again?
Courageous men and women, with full comprehension of the exposure to danger, banded one in union to demand justice. It is factual to say our ancestors stood on that same sacred ground in 1963, endangering their hard won freedoms, to show our government that unanimity does, in fact, exist amongst our people. The harder realization was in speaking with men and women who remember standing there in 1963, as emerging young people with their parents, here again in 2026. Those who passed paid a hefty price of suffering and sacrifice. Those who are with us carry not only their memory, but the foundations of their progress which we live on.
Our ancestors’ laurels are not for us to merely romanticize. We are not to sit docile nor wallow in the nostalgia of their endeavors. It is not for us to misappropriate their progress as permission to pause the fight. It is time for this administration and all following to heed to the certitude that though our bodies are no longer the commodity up for auction, they do not possess the power to make our rights the replacement. Nevertheless, we continue demanding access to exercise the same liberties as the corporations riddled with greed, the guns that tear our schools apart, and a music industry that promotes our pain instead of our power. Will we continue to hypothesize and theorize our perils or will we leverage our forerunners’ advancements for propulsion into a new national order?
The answer is simple, but with necessity, I admittedly declare that it is far from easy. In order for us to persevere through this familiar battle and ultimately win what seems to be a never ending war, yes I am saying it. We must start with our vote. When voting rights surface to the topic of conversation, it is unfortunately proclaimed that our vote is powerless. To say it plainly, if our votes had no impact and honestly did not work, they would not invest so much time, money, and trickery placing obstacles in our ballot’s path. If our votes did not count, we would not consistently argue the need for mass voter turnout in minor elections. If our votes, truly, did not matter, they would not have murdered multiple Black and white men for ensuring the members of the Black community were registered to vote.
So, to pose some new questions and ideas beyond “did you register to vote,” I believe we should be asking if they know where their voting site is located. Do you have adequate, round-trip transportation? Should we have folding chairs and water available for those who must wait in long lines? Are you familiar with the positions and the candidates on the ballot? Are there accessibility measures in place for voters with disabilities? Do you know where you can find the results? We must move beyond asking whether our neighbor voted and actively ensure they are knowledgeable and prepared.
There is an abundance of legislation that has been introduced, and it is our charge to keep updated and supportive of the efforts. The John Robert Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act aims to reestablish a system known as “preclearance.” This would require states and localities with a history of racial discrimination to change their voting laws, with approval by the federal government, before going into effect. This is but one of the concerns addressed by this act. The Washington, D.C. Admission Act is proposed federal legislation that would admit the residential places of D.C. into the Union as the 51st state. There are about 700,000 U.S. Citizens living in D.C., paying federal taxes, serving in government and the military, yet enduring without local self-governance and voter representation in Congress. As of right now, the National Guard and police force roam the streets of our nation’s capital as though it is an active war zone. It appears the off-brand Blackshirt in the Oval Office has become dreadfully fearful of We the People. This has burdened taxpayers with over $600 million in domestic deployment costs alone in the past year. In the wise and recognizable words of our nation’s founders, I believe this is taxation without representation. This matter of D.C. Statehood affects us all by verifying the notion, “Nobody is free until everyone is free!”
And on account of freedoms, every time an executive administration is voted in, rules change, and the system is re-rigged. Each time, members of the Black community are directly impacted. This time, the punishment for patriotism and being in the 92% resulted in more than 300,000 Black women losing or leaving their job positions since 2025. Federal layoffs, DEI rollbacks, and Artificial Intelligence are a few of the avenues through which the canaries in the coal mine have yet again been suffocated. This has forcibly propelled Black women into entrepreneurship and finding creative ways to maintain stability. When Black women’s economic security is impacted, our entire community feels it: children, businesses, and churches, to name a few.
Black women birthed the laborers that built this country. Black women labored for this country long before the suffrage movement. And because of this, we believe that which America has damaged must be repaired. The Protect Black Women and Girls Act intends to construct and enable an Interagency Task Force whose role will be examining the total conditions and experiences of Black women and girls. Some of the objectives include programs for Black maternal health, economic equality for businesses owned by Black women, and responding to Black women reentering society after incarceration. Black women are not footnotes nor references in American history. We are embedded in American history, and America has no choice but to restore us too.
But for America to fully restore the past, actualize the present, and prepare for the future, we, as a people, must do so first. We battle to be recognized by a country that amended us into humanity while battling our own ideologies that keep us in bondage. It is no secret; we have lost some hope in our institutions. It is no secret; we find fault within Black organizations, Black businesses, and Black churches. In the same manner, we are the catalysts of their change. We are the accountability holders. We must drop the pomp and circumstance with each other and collaborate beyond donation drives and worship services.
It is the duty of Black establishments that claim to pursue the uplifting of our people to stand on their word. Those that still maintain an order of self-governance are to get their affairs in order, get in the field, and begin economically synergizing in favor of Black growth. Our politicians should financially depend on us to avoid receiving tyrant-backed funding and no longer be subject to voting in favor of tyranny. We must stand as a united front about the recent lynchings, not just when another Black celebrity starts tap dancing. We must stop operating in silos and only conjugating when we want to let each other know what we have done. We must find a way to get in the way and take what is rightfully ours.
The promise of 40 acres and a mule has remained in our rear view, and that alone justifies our centuries of anger. Yet, in the astute words of Reverend Al Sharpton, get angry, but don’t go mad; go to work! The God of our weary years and the God of our silent tears has given us something far more powerful than any president, billionaire, conglomerate, and courthouse combined. God has given us each other, and we outnumber them all. Take courage, for we have already proven time and time again the power of “WE.” The sole way America can repent for centuries of sins is through retroactive, all-inclusive policy. The surety for policy is the guarantee that we will assemble at every last poll regardless of the hell and high water. So despite having been here before, this is why we are here again. Because still..we must rise, still we must organize, and yes, we must still defend our vote!
