It has always been about voting. The threats, the terror, the shootings, the beatings, the intimidation all are to stop the majority from voting. There are only so many racists, misogynists, right wingers, thugs and greedy bastards – not enough to win fair elections.

From the beginning we have suffered from a Constitution that excluded a majority of the people of the United States. This gave and still gives power to those who want to make it hard for Americans to vote and who often want to stay in power by controlling who votes. Today, instead of raw terror they use their refined cousins voter photo IDs, voter integrity vendettas, denying the vote to people caught up in the criminal justice system, gerrymandering and outright attempts to buy elections. This is our history. This is the challenge we still face in building democracy.

In June 1966 James Meredith set out to walk from the northernmost part of Mississippi straight down public road US 40 to Jackson Mississippi, the state capitol, to demonstrate that African Americans should not fear registering to vote and demanding full equality under law.

For the enemies of democracy Meredith posed a problem. Meredith grew up in enforced segregation where he was denied opportunities for equal education, jobs and even drinking water. Health care and hospitals were segregated. Even walking down the street or going about daily life was risky if he was unwilling to get out of the way simply because he was black. But he had learned to stand up for his rights. Before his first day of march was done he was shot by a sniper hiding at the side of the road. As with so many others he was subjected to the violence with a wink and a nod from the law, with no police protection and with all the power of the state favoring the sniper against the citizen.

Attacking those who stood for freedom was common – it got rid of an immediate challenge and it sent a message to everyone else considering fairness and justice.

This time was different. The sit ins, the Freedom Rides, the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party and a growing realization by a new generation that we could build a better world, that we could defy injustice and terror and that we each had the ability to stand for something and stand together. 10,000 people, men and women from all parts of the country; rich poor and in the middle, came to Mississippi to walk with James Meredith to go to Jackson, to demand the right to vote, to stand up against fear.

I was 20 then and I got there as soon as I could. We were a pretty diverse group, with lots of differences. Most of us did not know one another, although some of us had been together on other efforts for equal rights, peace and justice. What we really shared, what we didn’t talk about much, but what held us together was the belief that each one of us mattered and could make a difference. Most of us didn’t have much but we had our lives to shape and mean something.

And then we realized we had each other. Each of us witnessed for justice. All of us became a movement for justice.

I also had a camera. These pictures were made during a three-week period in 1966 as we marched toward Jackson to demand freedom, justice and equality.

After the March we went back to our work, our homes and our regular lives. But we knew something about what we could do with our regular lives to make a better world. Many of us worked in the movement to stop the war in Vietnam, on the Poor Peoples Campaign and many other efforts.

The Meredith March was one of hundreds and hundreds of emergencies that shaped our understanding of what it means to speak truth to power, We all realized that it has always been about voting. The power hungry, the greedy, the racists, the misogynists stay in power not because of their ideas, but because they still prevent us from voting.

Now, decades later, we can celebrate what we did and remind ourselves how many more miles we have to go before we can rest.