King family, Justin Pearson advocate in Memphis for expansion of U.S. Supreme Court

Fifty-five years after a gunman shot and killed his father at the Lorraine Motel, Martin Luther King III returned to Memphis with his wife and daughter. Outside the Shelby County Courthouse at 140 Adams Ave., the family stood with state Rep. Justin Pearson and Tikeila Rucker, political director of Memphis for All, and painted a dire picture of human rights in the United States.

To safeguard democracy, the U.S. Supreme Court must be expanded with more checks and balances, they said.

“There are some who would say that dream has become a nightmare,” King said. “It certainly has for poor people. It certainly has for Black people. It certainly has for native or indigenous people. The question is what are we as a society going to do about it?”

The Kings visited Memphis for the latest stop on the “Just Majority” campaign’s national bus tour, which began in Boston in April and has traveled through states ranging from California to Texas.

U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen had planned to join but ultimately had a scheduling conflict.

The national bus tour is a part of a Supreme Court accountability program, with the slogan, “Democracy Demands A Fair And Ethical Court.”

Pearson, who is currently seeking reelection to the state House seat from which he was expelled after protesting in favor of gun reforms, said the U.S. Supreme Court was “now a political branch of government.”

Pearson, Rucker and the Kings pointed to how, in 2013, the Supreme Court struck down a key part of the Voting Rights Act, how last year the court overturned Roe v. Wade and how justices like Clarence Thomas have been under scrutiny for ethics lapses involving lavish trips and gifts.

They also described “oppression being legislated” into state law, including laws opposing critical race theory that mean history cannot be taught or laws restricting the rights of LGBTQ Americans.

Arndrea Waters King described her daughter as having lost rights since she was born in 2008.

“We are also here at a point in time in which all of the work that (Martin Luther King Jr.) and Coretta Scott King and so many others dedicated their lives for are literally being eroded in front of our very eyes," she said. “We are looking at the first generation since the end of reconstruction … that have progressively lost rights since the days they were born.”

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Yolanda King, their daughter, echoed that sentiment, saying her grandfather “left a blueprint.” Youth are powerful, she said, and have sought change including in the Civil Rights Movement.

Rucker described how crucial votes such as the overturning of Roe v. Wade were made by just a small group of people.

“Supreme Court compositions influence our lives,” she said. “This concentration of power erodes the principle of justice and equality.”Katherine Burgess covers government and religion. She can be reached at katherine.burgess@commercialappeal.com or followed on Twitter @kathsburgess.

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: King family, Pearson advocate in Memphis for U.S. Supreme Court expansion