PEOPLE’S ORGANIZATION FOR PROGRESS WILL BEGIN ANNUAL VOTER REGISTRATION DRIVE ON THE ANNIVERSARY OF BLOODY SUNDAY

The People’s Organization For Progress (POP) will start the Empowerment Saturdays Voter Registration Drive Saturday, March 7, 2026, 3:00pm to 5:00pm on the corner of Broad and Market Streets (near 777 Broad Street) in Newark, New Jersey.

“POP will start registering voters on Saturday because it is the anniversary of Bloody Sunday when 600 civil rights marchers were attacked and beaten by state troopers and sheriff’s deputies while trying to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama on March 7, 1965,” Lawrence Hamm, Chairman, People’s Organization For Progress stated.

“When they attempted to cross that bridge they were marching for voting rights and to protest the murder of Jimmie Lee Jackson who was killed by police,“ Hamm said.

“Jackson had been killed the previous month during a peaceful protest for voting rights. During the march many were hurt including John Lewis and Amelia Boynton Robinson,” he said.

“However, their struggle was not in vain because the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson five months later on August 6, 1965,” he said.

“Empowerment Saturday is extremely important to me. You see, we do voter registration because many people suffered and died so that we could have the right to vote,” Steven Hatcher, who leads the POP voter registration team, stated.

“We want to make sure that as many people as possible are able to do so,” Hatcher said.

“In addition, we are calling this year’s effort the Jesse Jackson Voter Registration Drive in his honor because he continued the fight for civil rights, voting rights, and human rights after the assassination of Dr Martin Luther King,” he said.

Hamm said that he plans to attend Jackson’s funeral on Saturday in Chicago. He also said that he will be leaving Chicago to go to Selma, Alabama to participate in the annual march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge that commemorates what happened on Bloody Sunday.

“We will start registering voters this weekend and we will continue to do so every Saturday, weather permitting, until the cutoff date for registration in October when the drive will end,” he said.

“Voter registration takes on increased importance in our current environment especially when there are racist and fascist forces in this country that are trying to place limits on our right to vote,” he said.

“There are Trump administration policies, court decisions, and legislation at federal and state levels designed to interfere with, impede, and even prevent some people from voting,” he said.

Hamm said the U.S. Department of Justice lawsuit to force New Jersey to give up its list of registered voters to the federal government is one such effort.

“We are opposed to this attempt to seize the state’s voter rolls. We believe that the Trump administration will use that information to engage in some form of voter suppression during the midterm elections,” he said.

POP is a grassroots, all volunteer organization that works for racial, social, economic justice and peace. Voter education, registration, and participation, have been key activities of the group since it was founded forty-four years ago. For more information or to be a voter registration volunteer contact People’s Organization For Progress at 973 801-0001.