Our democracy is at stake. Republican lawmakers across the country are redrawing district lines to disenfranchise underserved and Black communities, and Trump’s Supreme Court is siding with them. These new maps are just one of the hurdles the GOP is putting up to make it harder for many Americans to vote and have their votes count.

“The right to vote was fought for over generations and we must protect this right,” said SEIU 1021 President Theresa Rutherford. “We will not back down in the face of a fascist government that seeks to take away all of our hard fought civil rights with impunity, so to make that commitment we are gathering at San Francisco City Hall to defend our vote and invite the public to join us too.”

We are gathering on the steps of San Francisco City Hall with elected officials, civil rights leaders, SEIU 1021’s Social and Economic Justice Committee, and community partners to mark 63 years since Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech.

Though decades have passed, our communities still face the same threats to the right to vote.

“The Mississippi Summer Project, was met with unrelenting violence, 1,000 arrests, 35 shootings, 30 Bombed buildings, 35 burned churches, 80 beatings, and at least 6 murders,” said SEIU 1021 member and Social and Economic Justice Committee leader Phelicia Jones. That’s what my ancestors had to endure for the right to vote. In addition, Let us not forget Bloody Sunday, the March from Selma to Montgomery on March 25, 1965. I fight because my father was born and raised in Selma, Alabama, the most racist City in the United States of America. I not only fight the injustices for my father in remembrance of him, but also for the people. All power to the people.”

Please RSVP for our Defend the Vote Rally using the form here.

Thursday, Oct. 22 
San Francisco City Hall
Front Steps 
Noon - 2 p.m.