Our voices are strong, and together we can find viable sustainable solutions.

As part of our work to educate and serve as a catalyst for positive social change, the National Civil Rights Museum is committed to centering the past lessons of the civil rights movement to issues of today as we seek solutions that rid society of injustices.

Dr. King’s six pillars: Justice, Poverty, Decent Housing, Better Jobs & Higher Wages, Quality Education, and Peace represent the unfinished agenda he was building toward at the time of his assassination, each rooted in the belief that true equality requires both moral and material change. Imagine an America extends that legacy by centering voting as the mechanism through which communities can act on all six pillars at once in pursuit of justice.

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Discover ways to impact change in your community. Now is the time to act.

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Get Prepared

Making sure that you are registered and have a voting plan is the best way to make sure you vote every chance that you have.

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They Imagined a World Where Black Votes Mattered.

February 2, 1870
15th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution was adopted giving all citizens the right to vote regardless of race, color or previous servitude.
They Imagined Women Could Vote.

August 18, 1920
19th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution was adopted giving women the right to vote.
They Believed Civil Rights Were for Every Man.

September 9, 1957
The Civil Rights Act of 1957 was signed by President Eisenhower. In a compromise intended to protect voting rights of African Americans, it instead set up two-year U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, a civil rights division in the Justice Department and authorized the U.S. Attorney General to seek injunctions to protect voting rights.
They Believed in Closing Loopholes That Prevented Voter Discrimination.

May 6, 1960
Civil Rights Act of 1960 sought to enforce the 1957 act adding federal inspection of voter rolls, provided court-appointed referees and established criminal penalties against anyone preventing African Americans from voting.
They Imagined a World Where Hurdles That Made Voting Inaccessible Didn't Exist.

August 27, 1962
The 24th Amendment abolished poll tax that prohibited citizens from voting who failed to pay fees, a voter suppression tactic that existed in response to the passage of the 15th Amendment to discriminate against Black voters along with literacy tests.
They Believed That Freedom for All Meant Something.

July 2, 1964
President Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1964 making it illegal to discriminate for any reason based on race, color, religion, sex or national origin.
They Believed Every Vote Counted.

August 6, 1965
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was signed into law. The Section 5 provision requiring pre-clearance of voting policy changes in Southern states was renewed in 1970, 1975, 1982, 2006, until the Supreme Court decision in 2013.
They Believed If You Could Serve, You Could Vote.

March 23, 1971
26th Amendment was passed changing the eligible voting age from 21 to 18 after protests that soldiers age 18-20 in the Vietnam War were fighting for the country in which they could not vote.
They Fought For a World Where Minority Populations Had Access to Voting.

June 25, 2013
The Supreme Court gutted a key provision of the Voting Rights Act requiring certain states with history of racial discrimination to pre-clear any new voting practices with the Department of Justice. Since the Shelby County (GA) vs. Holder ruling, a surge of gerrymandering, redistricting, voting restrictions, and ID laws have resulted in limitations on access to the ballot for minority populations particularly in Southern states.
They Imagined an America where Ethics and Humanity Win.

March 8, 2019
The For The People Act of 2019 H.R. 1 bill pass the House of Representatives. It is a bill to make it easier to vote, reduce campaign funding influence, end gerrymandering, update voting infrastructure and strengthen voting ethics.
They Believed in Voting Rights that are Truly For the People.

March 3, 2021
The ‘For The People Act,’ was an H.R. 1 bill that was passed by the United States Congress in order to expand voting rights. Additionally, this law reduced the amount of influence in campaign finance, banned partisan gerrymandering, and created new ethics rules for federal officeholders. This bill passed in the House of Representatives, but a filibuster blocked it in the Senate.
They Believed in Advancing Voting Rights for All.

August 24, 2021
The ‘John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act’ was an H.R. 4 bill that made discriminating on the basis of race, language or ethnicity on voting rules illegal. This law also empowered voters to challenge the discriminatory laws. While it passed through the House of Representatives, this bill did not receive the needed 60 votes in the Senate.
They Imagined the Freedoms We Should Have to Vote.

September 14, 2021
The ‘Freedom to Vote Act’ was a compromise bill that followed the ‘For the People Act’ but was blocked in the Senate. This act would have solidified comprehensive voter protection. Some of these protections included ensuring that voters can vote by mail without an exception, requiring states to start early voting at least 14 days prior to the election, and making Election Day a national holiday. The Senate voted this down in 2022.

Eliminating Racism & Toxic Cultures in Policing

Public Safety

National Urban League - 21 Pillars for Redefining Public Safety and Restoring Community Trust

Community Policing

Community Policing and Accountability

Cato - In 2020, 63% of Americans support eliminating qualified immunity for police officers.

July 16, 2020

Police Violence

Police Violence Report - Fewer than 3% of killings by police result in officers being charged with a crime each year.

Racial Targeting

NAACP - 65% of Black American adults who have felt targeted because of their race.

Police Violence

Mapping Police Violence - Black people are 2.9 times more likely to be killed by police than White people in the U.S. (2023)

“Those who commit the murders write the reports.”

Ida B. Wells
“I am no longer accepting the things I cannot change. I am changing the things I cannot accept.”

Angela Davis
“Every single person actually has the power to protest racist and antiracist policies, to advance them, or, in some small way, to stall them”

Ibram X Kendi
“It is not that I dwell on the past. But the past shapes the way we are in the present and the way we will become what we are destined to become.”

Mamie Till-Mobley
“The way to right wrongs is to turn the light of truth upon them.”

Ida B. Wells
“We must all stand against both the continual, systematic, and structural racial inequities that normalize daily violence as well as against extreme acts of racial terror”

Kimberle Crenshaw
“I feel that if we don't take seriously the ways in which racism is embedded in structures of institutions, if we assume that there must be an identifiable racist who is the perpetrator, then we won't ever succeed in eradicating racism."

Angela Davis
“Hate and ignorance have not driven the history of racist ideas in America. Racist policies have driven the history of racist ideas in America”

Ibram X Kendi

Democracy in Action

Our voices are strong, and together we can find viable sustainable solutions.

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Get Prepared

Share The Vision

“Those who commit the murders write the reports.”

Ida B. Wells

“I am no longer accepting the things I cannot change. I am changing the things I cannot accept.”

Angela Davis

“Every single person actually has the power to protest racist and antiracist policies, to advance them, or, in some small way, to stall them”

Ibram X Kendi

“It is not that I dwell on the past. But the past shapes the way we are in the present and the way we will become what we are destined to become.”

Mamie Till-Mobley

“The way to right wrongs is to turn the light of truth upon them.”

Ida B. Wells

“We must all stand against both the continual, systematic, and structural racial inequities that normalize daily violence as well as against extreme acts of racial terror”

Kimberle Crenshaw

“I feel that if we don't take seriously the ways in which racism is embedded in structures of institutions, if we assume that there must be an identifiable racist who is the perpetrator, then we won't ever succeed in eradicating racism."

Angela Davis

“Hate and ignorance have not driven the history of racist ideas in America. Racist policies have driven the history of racist ideas in America”

Ibram X Kendi