The marchers climbed the stairs of the Lincoln Memorial, under the aegis of the NAACP, and assembled on the steps. The colossal statue of Lincoln was behind them. While the Radicals of Lincoln’s day wanted complete black suffrage, it took him some time to move towards limited black suffrage, according to historians. Lincoln’s reluctance was no doubt due to a complex set of contradictions and, most likely, because he understood the power of the vote. He once said, “The ballot is stronger than the bullet.” Indeed, since the founding of the nation, one group or another has been denied the vote by those who feared its power. Speaking to the New York Daily News, Senator Bernie Sanders, who walked across the Arlington Bridge and into D.C. with the marchers, said “It’s just simply cowardly that these governors and legislatures are making it harder for poor people, for elderly people, and people of color to participate in our political process.”