Polk County To Celebrate MLK Jr. Day With Parade

LAKELAND, FL — On Monday, events in Lakeland will honor the life and legacy of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. Some U.S. cities, however, will forgo the celebration of the federal holiday to take a stand in support of voting rights.

Last month, the family of the late civil rights activist called on President Joe Biden and members of the U.S. Senate to either restore and expand voting rights in honor of King's legacy or skip the celebration of his namesake holiday.

Fueling the King family’s call are at least 400 voter suppression bills introduced during the first five months of 2021, 33 of which were put into law across 19 states, according to a report by Insider citing data from the Voting Rights Lab.

In Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed Senate Bill 90 into law May 6. "The law forces local supervisors of elections to cut back on the use of drop boxes to collect mail-in ballots and requires voters to request such ballots twice as frequently as before," Florida Phoenix said. It bans ballot harvesting, which prohibits anyone but relatives from returning a voter's ballot.

Shortly after it became law, civil-rights legal challenges were filed by League of Women Voters, Southern Poverty Law Center, NAACP, Disability Rights Florida and Common Cause, according to the Florida Phoenix. A trial that includes these cases is set to begin Jan. 31.

"DeSantis and other Republican officials contend that mail-in ballots promote voting fraud, a refrain they struck up only after Donald Trump began complaining about them before last year's presidential election and subsequently," the outlet reported.

Seventeen democratic state attorneys general in filed papers on Jan. 7 in Tallahassee with U.S. District Judge Mark Walker challenging Florida's new voting law.

"Although states have leeway to pursue bona fide state interests, jurisdictions cannot invoke such interests as pretexts to harm discrete blocs of unpopular voters," the brief said, according to the Phoenix. "The history of American democracy is replete with regrettable examples of states doing just that: for example, even indisputably discriminatory disenfranchisement devices, like the poll tax, were once justified as a means of preventing voter fraud,"

Attorney General William Tong, Connecticut's attorney general, said Florida is making it harder for people to exercise their constitutional right to vote when they should be making it easier. He also said Florida's law is part of a nationwide right-wing voter suppression campaign designed to undermine public participation and trust in elections.

Here’s a look at a few other events in Lakeland intended to honor the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr.:

• Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Annual Community Parade, 11 a.m., Saturday, Jan. 15 in Lakeland. The parade begins at Providence and West 14th Street and ends at MLK Avenue and Second Street. For full view of route, click Google Maps.

RELATED: No MLK Jr. Day Without Action On Voting Rights, King Family Says

The Freedom to Vote Act would create a national standard for voting access, overruling many restrictions passed or proposed in states. Meanwhile, the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act would restore and strengthen parts of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 after certain portions of the bill were struck down by two U.S. Supreme Court decisions.

While passed by thin margins in the U.S. House of Representatives, both bills remain stuck in the Senate, blocked primarily by Republican opposition.

All but acknowledging defeat, President Biden said Thursday he's "not sure" his elections and voting rights legislation can pass Congress this year, the Associated Press reported. He spoke at the Capitol after a key fellow Democrat, Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, dramatically announced her refusal to go along with changing Senate rules to muscle past a Republican filibuster blockade.

To encourage the Senate to pass both bills, demonstrations are planned Saturday in Phoenix, Arizona, and Monday in Washington, D.C. More than 100 grassroots organizations have joined the Kings’ call to action.

"Voting is an essential part of our democracy's infrastructure," Arndrea Waters King said in a statement. Waters King is the wife of Martin Luther King III, the son of the slain civil rights icon.

“We cannot afford for it to crumble any further," she added.

Just days ahead of MLK Jr. Day, Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris visited Atlanta Tuesday to talk about the voting rights bills — bills Biden called a "turning point."

In an excerpt of his speech released by the White House, Biden said, "The next few days, when these bills come to a vote, will mark a turning point in this nation. Will we choose democracy over autocracy, light over shadow, justice over injustice? I know where I stand. I will not yield. I will not flinch. I will defend your right to vote and our democracy against all enemies foreign and domestic. And so the question is where will the institution of (the) United States Senate stand?"

"Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Thursday evening the Senate will delay its scheduled January recess and take up voting legislation on Tuesday despite major obstacles that appear to have closed off a path for Democrats to achieve that ambition," CNN reported.

RELATED: Biden To Senate On Voting Rights Bills: 'Pass It Now'