At a Selma church ceremony marking the 59th anniversary of the attack by Alabama law enforcement officers on civil rights demonstrators, Attorney General Merrick Garland told parishioners that voting rights are under threat in much of the country.
Garland said during the Bloody Sunday ceremony that Supreme Court and lower court rulings since 2006 have weakened the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which was passed after police attacks. On March 7, 1965, demonstrators trying to cross Alabama to support voting rights were beaten by police on the Edmund Pettus Bridge. Vice President Kamala Harris will lead the annual march across the bridge on Sunday afternoon.
The parade and Garland’s speech were among dozens of events during the Selma Bridge Crossing celebrations, which began Thursday and culminated Sunday.
Garland said the rulings jeopardized the voting rights of black Americans.
“Since these (court) decisions, there has been a dramatic increase in legislative measures that make it more difficult for millions of eligible voters to cast their ballots and elect the representatives of their choice,” Garland told worshipers at Selma’s Tabernacle Baptist Church. The first mass meeting of the human rights movement.
“These include practices and procedures that make voting more difficult; redistricting of maps that disadvantage minorities; and changes to vote administration that weaken the authority of local election or nonpartisan election administrators,” he said. “Such measures Threats to the very foundation of our system of government.”
Harris will speak at a rally on the bridge after the march to speak about “the legacy of the civil rights movement, discuss the ongoing work to achieve justice for all, and encourage Americans to continue fighting for basic freedoms that are under attack across the country.” Struggle.”
Khadidah Stone, 27, one of the crowds who gathered on the bridge in light rain before Sunday’s march, sees the work of today’s activists as an extension of the 1965 Selma attackers. Stone, who works for the voter engagement group Alabama Forward, was a plaintiff in the voting rights case against the state that resulted in Alabama’s creation of a second congressional district with a large number of black voters. Voters will cast their first ballot in the constituency on Tuesday.
“We have to keep fighting because they (voting rights) are under attack,” Stone said.
Harris attended the 2022 march, calling the site sacred and giving a speech calling on Congress to defend democracy by protecting people’s right to vote. On that anniversary, Harris spoke of marchers’ “peaceful protests that were met with devastating violence.”
“When the state troopers charged, they were kneeling,” she said at the time. “They were praying when the billy sticks struck.”
The violence on the bridge shocked Americans and helped galvanize support for the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The bill removed barriers that prohibited blacks from voting.
U.S. Rep. James Clyburn, who is leading a pilgrimage to Selma, said he was trying to “remind people that we are celebrating an event that started this country on a path toward a better future.” A Better Path to a Perfect Union,” but voting rights are still not guaranteed.
Clyburn sees Selma as a nexus of the 1960s voting rights movement and current efforts to curtail those rights.
“As a result of what happened on March 7, 1965, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 became a reality in August 1965,” Clyburn said.
“We are at an inflection point in this country,” he added. “Hopefully this year’s march will allow people to take stock of where we are.”
Clyburn said he hopes the weekend in Alabama will bring energy and unity to the civil rights movement and benefit the city of Selma.
“We need to do something to develop the waterfront; we need to do something to bring this industry back to Selma,” Clyburn said. “We have to do something to make up for the loss of all the jobs that were provided there. Military installations of opportunity. All of that is gone and there’s nothing to engage young people in developing their communities.”
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