Martin Luther King Jr.'s family say's there's no MLK Day celebration without the passage of voting rights

• The family of Martin Luther King, Jr. is pressuring lawmakers to pass voting rights legislation.
• Supporters of voting rights will protest during the weekend of MLK Day.

The family of the late civil-rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. has decided to challenge Congress and the Biden administration instead of celebrating MLK Day: "No celebration without legislation," the family said in an emailed statement to Insider.

"You delivered for bridges, now deliver for voting rights," the family continued.

The family, with a host of partners and supporters, will gather in Washington, DC, on Monday, January 17, on the observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day to demand the passage of voting right legislation.

With the 2022 midterm elections steadily approaching and the November passage of Biden's $1 trillion infrastructure bill, activists are applying even more pressure on the passage of voting rights legislation.

"President Biden and Congress used their political muscle to deliver a vital infrastructure deal, and now we are calling on them to do the same to restore the very voting rights protections my father and countless other civil rights leaders bled to secure," Martin Luther King III, son of the civil rights leader, said in a statement.

There are two pieces of voting rights legislation being considered: The Freedom to Vote Act, a voting rights and election reform bill that was filibustered in October, and The John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, which would re-establish parts of the historic Voting Rights Act of 1965 that was gutted by the US Supreme Court in 2013.

"Like those who crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge on Bloody Sunday, we will not accept empty promises in pursuit of my father's dream for a more equal and just America," King added.

According to a recent report by the Democracy Docket, data from the Voting Rights Lab a nonpartisan voter's rights organization shows that over 400 voter suppression bills were introduced during the first five months of 2021 — 33 of which were put into law across 19 different states.

However, 25 states also put 62 laws into action that scale-up voting access, according to the Brennan Center.

"Voting is an essential part of our democracy's infrastructure, and we cannot afford for it to crumble any further. President Biden and Congress must fight for the voting rights of Black and Brown Americans the same way they fought for our bridges — with every ounce of power their office provides," Arndrea Waters King, wife to King's son, said in a statement.