Ms Ashby said she was proud that King now stands among the presidents honored
with memorials in the nation’s capital.
“I woke up this morning, and it gave me great joy to know that I was
coming here,” Ms Ashby said. “I know it’s a piece of stone, and I
know it’s one man, but it was just pride. Pride. Happiness. Joy, in just
knowing that I could come and just have a piece of that history, the
changing in the world.”
In Columbia, South Carolina, meanwhile, hundreds of people rallied outside the
state capitol to honor King and to protest the state’s voter identification
law.
The US Justice Department has rejected the law.
On Monday, marchers carried signs that read: “Voter ID(equals)Poll Tax.”
Several other states have enacted laws similar to the one passed in South
Carolina, which requires voters to show a photo ID before casting ballots.
Texas, Alabama, Kansas, Mississippi, Rhode Island, Tennessee and Wisconsin
are among them.
Such laws already were on the books in Georgia and Indiana, and they were
approved by President George W. Bush’s Justice Department. Indiana’s law,
passed in 2005, was upheld by the US Supreme Court in 2008.
Critics have likened the laws to the poll taxes and tests used to prevent
blacks from voting during the civil rights era. Supporters, many of whom are
Republicans, say such laws are needed to prevent fraud.
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