Key keywords: National Action Network (NAN) Convention 2024, voting rights protection, racial equity, police accountability, economic justice for marginalized groups, 2024 US presidential election, systemic racism, affordable housing access, minority small business support Held in Midtown Manhattan from April 17 to 20, 2024, the annual National Action Network Convention brought together hundreds of civil rights leaders, elected officials, community organizers and grassroots advocates to address pressing inequities facing Black and Brown communities across the United States. Founded by Rev. Al Sharpton in 1991, NAN has long positioned its annual convention as a critical platform for marginalized voices to hold policymakers accountable, and this year’s event drew some of the highest-profile figures in national politics, including President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, and several Democratic congressional leaders, alongside civil rights icons such as Martin Luther King III, the son of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and attorney Benjamin Crump, who has represented families of victims of police brutality. During his keynote address on the final day of the convention, President Biden emphasized his administration’s efforts to advance voting rights, noting that he has signed three executive orders aimed at expanding access to polling places and rolling back restrictive voter ID laws passed by Republican-led state legislatures in 19 states since 2020. “The right to vote is the foundation of all our rights, and we will not let anyone take it away, no matter how hard they try,” Biden told the crowd, drawing standing ovations. He also highlighted his administration’s $10 billion fund to support minority-owned small businesses, and ongoing pushes to pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, which would ban chokeholds, end qualified immunity for law enforcement officers, and create a national registry for police misconduct. Vice President Harris focused her remarks on the disproportionate impact of systemic racism on housing and health care access for Black communities, noting that Black families have a median net worth just 15% that of white families, and Black women are three times more likely to die from pregnancy-related complications than white women. “Racial justice is economic justice, is health care justice, is housing justice,” Harris said. “We cannot call ourselves a fair country until every person, no matter the color of their skin or their zip code, has equal opportunity to thrive.” Civil rights speakers at the convention also pushed back against recent efforts to ban critical race theory from public school curriculums, noting that erasing the history of racial oppression in the US makes it impossible to address ongoing inequities. Organizers announced at the close of the convention that NAN will launch a 20-state voter mobilization tour ahead of the 2024 general election, with a goal of registering 1 million new Black and Latino voters, and hosting 500 community town halls to educate voters on where candidates stand on civil rights issues.