WASHINGTON — Rep. Jonathan L. Jackson, D-Ill., Bishop William J. Barber II, and a coalition of congressional, faith, and civil rights leaders are scheduled to gather Tuesday outside the National Museum of African American History and Culture for a National Voter Registration Day event and to launch a national get-out-the-vote bus tour.
The September 15 gathering comes a week after Lonnie G. Bunch III, the museum’s founding director and the first Black person to serve as secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, announced his retirement. Organizers say participants will recognize Bunch’s work while calling attention to what they describe as an ongoing struggle over how Black history is preserved and presented.
The event runs from 1 to 3 p.m. on the grounds outside the museum, 1400 Constitution Ave. NW.
Organizers argue that the history preserved inside the museum cannot be separated from the fight to secure and protect the ballot, a line running from emancipation and Reconstruction through Jim Crow, the Civil Rights Movement, and the passage of the Voting Rights Act.
The gathering also marks the launch of the March On for Freedom 2026 National GOTV Bus Tour, a voter registration and mobilization campaign organized by the Registration Nation Action Fund and national partners. Andrea Pringle, the fund’s founder and CEO, is expected to join Jackson and Barber on Tuesday, along with clergy, civil rights advocates, labor leaders, and voting rights organizers. Additional members of Congress will be announced.
Starting in the nation’s capital during the 55th Annual Legislative Conference, the tour will travel across the South ahead of the November midterms. Stops include HBCUs, churches, and communities where organizers plan to register voters and provide information about early voting, voter protection, and Election Day participation. Media is asked to RSVP HERE to attend.
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