The Washington Post says the Voting Rights March was the largest demonstration for DC Voting Rights in decades. And we were part of it!

Even though the high winds and rain reduced attendance and upended the program schedule, the excellent news coverage achieved our goal: putting the spotlight on the District’s predicament and increasing pressure on Congress to pass the DC Voting Rights Bill.

(See more photos on our Flickr group.)

DC4D had a particularly boisterious contingent, although smaller than we had expected. With Joanne Kim, Joan Kennan, Kevin Delany, and others forging ahead with our banner (which turned into a high-powered sail), and Denise Rathman energetically leading our chants, we made quite a noise striding down Pennsylvania Avenue.

And we were joined by our loyal Maryland allies, led by Gina Angiola and State Senator Jamie Raskin, who were cheered by our fellow District residents for their selfless commitment to DC Voting Rights.

Our sincere apologies to anyone who came to march with us, but could not find us because of the program changes.

The most important result of our efforts on the Voting Rights March is that we have proven ourselves to be serious and committed members of the DCVote coalition. The hard work we did to prepare for the march will stand us well in our ongoing campaign for voting rights. We have recruited new members and re-engaged longstanding ones. We are now in a much stronger position to engage in the intensive grassroots lobbying campaign that is required to pass HR 1433.

We’ll be talking with you soon about our forthcoming plans for moving forward on DC Voting Rights. We would love to hear about your ideas on that front, so please email us at votingrights@dcfordemocracy.org.