Martin Luther King III, the son of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., said on CNN Thursday that the s newly-passed election law was absolutely “racist.”
King said, “It’s a very sad day for this state. It bodes to moving back to Jim Crow era kind of legislation. The impact certainly has the potential to reduce voters, particularly of color, who normally would have — all voters would have a longer time to vote. I think there’s something in that legislation that says you can’t even bring somebody water. How inhumane can these legislators be? Even though the governor didn’t vote, he approved it by signing the legislation. It’s not surprising. It’s greatly disappointing that our state has gone in this direction.”
He continued, “What it means is that people are going to have to be more vigilant, Black people, young people, older people, poor people are going to have for more vigilant. It’s unfortunate this trend is happening across America and over 40 states across our nation. It used to be a time, if you called someone a racist, they would want to retreat. Now it seems to be en vogue and all right to be a racist. It’s a sad day in America, quite frankly.”
Anchor Pamela Brown said, “So you’re saying that you view the bill he signed as a form of racism?”
King said, “Oh, absolutely.”
He continued, “Why would you restrict? We’re supposed to be expanding the right to vote to make it easier, not restricting the right to vote. It’s a travesty, tragic. And I think voters, maybe this is going to backfire. The hope is that more and more people will vote because they made it so much more difficult by what they have done, which should be unconstitutional. We lead the nation and the world in promoting democracy, but we are blocking democracy at home. It’s a sad day in Georgia and a sad day for America.”
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