COVINGTON, Ga. — On the eve of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Stacey Abrams told Newton County residents that the fight for voting rights was far from over.

Abrams, who is a Democrat gubernatorial candidate in Georgia, and Sen. Rev. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., addressed the topic of voting Sunday during Newton County’s 37th Annual Commemorative Celebration of the Life and Legacy of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., which was live streamed via Facebook.

This year’s program was built on the theme of “creating the beloved community,” in which the power of the vote and voting rights were featured heavily throughout.

Portions of King’s 1966 speech in Kingstree, South Carolina, where he called on audience members to register to vote and also get others to register and make sure they cast a ballot, was featured in the program.

Warnock said he was working in Washington, D.C. with King’s vision of the “beloved community” in mind.

“From health care to housing to defending the dignity of work and critical civil liberties, from protecting the sacred right to vote for every eligible citizen, to creating good-paying jobs, to combatting the existential threat of climate change, we are still working on Dr. King’s unfinished business,” Warnock said. “For years I’ve been inspired by Dr. King’s courage and his vision for a beloved community. And his words that we are tied in a single garment of destiny caught up in an inescapable network of mutuality — whatever affects one directly affects all of us indirectly.

“And every vote and decision I make in the United States Senate I try my best to reflect that simple truth, because Dr. King was correct. And that wisdom applies, whether we are talking about justice and striving for equity, or investing in a better community and strengthening economic opportunity for all of us. 

“… Let me be clear. We can, and in this defining moment we must, all work to knit our single garment of destiny together.”

To conclude the ceremony, Abrams recalled the story of Maceo Snipes, a World War II veteran who was shot in the back and killed after casting his vote in the Georgia Democratic Primary of July 1946.

“He died for using his right to vote,” Abrams said. “From that story, I think about the progress we have made as a nation that the idea that casting your ballot will cost you your life is no longer part of our narrative.”

Abrams said King played major role in changing the narrative in his 1946 letter to editor of the Atlanta Journal, decrying the murder of Snipes.

“At the age of 17, a freshman at Morehouse College, [King] understood that adding his voice to that narrative,” she said, “calling out this heinous crime in Troup County, Georgia, was part of his responsibility.

"And from this story, I take the conversation progress very seriously,” Abrams added. “I know you’ve heard from Sen. Raphael Warnock, who is part of the notion for progress in this nation. Someone who has taken his place in the U.S. Senate and lifted up the questions of our democracy and legitimacy of our ends, and he does so with the legacy of Martin Luther King but also with the legacy of Maceo Snipes. Because you see, the fight for the right to vote is the fight to avenge the unavenged murder of Maceo Snipes. It is the fight to say that we deserve the progress that comes from having our voices heard.”

After telling the story of Otis Moss, another Georgia veteran who wanted to exercise his right to vote in Troup County in the 1946 elections but was ultimately denied through acts of voter suppression, Abrams said voter suppression remained an issue today, despite much progress in voting rights overall.

“As much as I applaud the legacy of our progress of Maceo Snipes, I fear for the perseverance of voter suppression,” she said. “Because you see, Troup County may become Lincoln County this year.”

Abrams said Lincoln County, outside of Augusta, had decided that due to its population decreasing, the government was going to eliminate polling places and essentially only have one polling place.

“The argument being the population is too small to support the number of polling places,” she said. “And I push back because I think the number of polling places is not dependent on how many people can vote. It’s dependent on how many people should be able to vote. You see, if Lincoln County shuts down those polling places they are discussing, an Otis Moss may find himself without a car, without public transit, forced to walk miles to try and cast a ballot, one of the most basic and fundamental acts of democracy — of citizenship. And how do we know that but for a polling place a few miles closer … his ability to cast a ballot could be made real?

“And we can’t think about these things in a vacuum,” Abrams continued, “because we know in the state of Georgia it has been made evident, not only through the law they’ve passed but the evidence we’ve seen, that because of the restrictions put on the right to vote in Georgia in 2021, we have fewer people who can cast their ballots using absentee balloting because the schedules make no sense. Fewer people are using that right, because drop boxes have started to disappear.

"We have people in our government fighting to limit the right to vote,” she said, “so while Maceo Snipes may not be repeated, sadly, Otis Moss’ story perseveres.

“And so while we celebrate the progress we have made, we have to hold our attention, focused on the perseverance and persistence of segregation. This time not segregation based on race, but based on whether they think your voice should be heard or not. Our voices should be heard or not.” 

Abrams believed it was important to recognize progress made but also continue to persevere and persist, and to get the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act passed in Congress. The proposed act would restore the Voting Rights Act of 1965's requirement that certain states pre-clear certain changes to their voting laws with the federal government. On August 24, 2021, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the bill by a margin of 219–212. On November 3, 2021, the bill failed to pass the Senate after failing to get the 60 votes needed to invoke cloture.

“Georgia, Newton County, we’ve got to remember that we’ve got the power already, and we have shown that power in 2020 and 2021 and it is not the power to elect a particular person. It is the power, it is the strength in our numbers, because we have record turnout in this state, record turnout in communities that have been discounted and discredited and discouraged for decades, for centuries. And yet in the wake of a pandemic and voter suppression action that we have not seen in so many years, we still saw people turn out.”

Abrams said King taught the people that “power is ours; it’s not just about finding the power for others, it’s finding the power in ourselves.”

“We will find the power to make our voices heard,” she said. “We will find the power to protect our people. We will find the power to change our stars and set our future because the power belongs to us. And that is what we learned from Dr. King. That is who we are, and that is who we must be.”