President Joe Biden went to Alabama to pay tribute to the heroes of “Bloody Sunday”, joining thousands of people in the annual celebration. pivotal moment in the civil rights movement that led to the adoption of landmark suffrage legislation almost 60 years ago.
The visit Selma It is also an opportunity for Biden to speak directly to the current generation of civil rights activists. Many feel disheartened that Biden has not been able to make good on his campaign pledge voting rights and eager to see his administration pay attention to this issue.
Biden intends to use his remarks to emphasize the importance of celebrating “Bloody Sunday” so that history cannot be erased, while also trying to demonstrate that the struggle for the right to vote is still on. is integral to economic justice and civil rights for black Americans, White House officials said. speak.
This year’s celebration comes as the historic city has about 18,000 inhabitants still digging in the aftermath of a tornado EF-2 in January that destroyed or damaged thousands of properties in and around Selma. The scars of that storm are still evident. Blocks from the stage where Biden will speak are dilapidated or roofless houses. Orange spray paint marks irretrievably buildings with “demolition” instructions.
Prior to Biden’s visit, Father William Barber II, co-chair of the Poor Campaign, and six other activists wrote Biden and members of Congress to express their frustration with the lack of progress in voting rights legislation. They urge Washington politicians visiting Selma not to smear the memory of late civil rights activists John lewis, Hosea Williams and others with an empty attitude.
“We’re telling President Biden, let’s see this as a moral issue for America and let’s show how it affects people,” Barber said in an interview. “When suffrage was passed after Selma, it didn’t just help Blacks, it helped America itself. We need the president to correct this: When you block the right to vote, you don’t you’re just hurting the Negro. You’re hurting America itself.”
Few moments are as important to the civil rights movement as those that happened on March 7, 1965, in Selma and in the weeks that followed.
About 600 peaceful protesters led by Lewis and Williams gathered that day, just weeks after the fatal shooting of a young Black man, Jimmy Lee Jackson, by an Alabama soldier.
Lewis, who later served in the United States House of Representatives representing Georgia, and others were brutally beaten by Alabama soldiers and the sheriff as they tried to cross Selma. Edmund Pettus Bridge at the beginning of what was said to be a 54-mile walk to the state capital in Montgomery as part of a larger effort to register Black voters in the South
Images of police violence have sparked outrage across the country. A few days later, civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. led a march known as the “Tuesday Revolving” march, in which marchers approached the police wall at the bridge and prayed before turning around.
President Lyndon B. Johnson introduced the Voting Rights Act of 1965 eight days after “Bloody Sunday”, calling Selma one of the rare moments in American history when “history and fate meet at the same time.” On March 21, King began his third march, under federal protection, which swelled to thousands by the time they reached the state capital. Five months later, Johnson signed the bill into law.
As a candidate in 2020, Biden promised to pursue sweeping legislation to strengthen voting rights protections. His 2021 bill, called the John Lewis Voting Rights Promotion Act, includes provisions to limit partisan fun to congressional districts, removing barriers to voting and bringing transparency to the campaign finance system allows wealthy donors to anonymously fund political ends.
It passed the then Democratic-controlled House of Representatives, but failed to gain the 60 votes needed to win passage in the Senate. With Republicans currently controlling the House, such passage legislation is very unlikely.
“Everything takes time. And it may take him another term to really accomplish all of the things he wants to do for the nation,” said Harriett Thomas, 76, a college student. when she begins the march will be known. is “Bloody Sunday.”
Hundreds of people lined up downtown Selma before Biden appeared, including Delores Gresham, 65, a retired healthcare worker from Birmingham. She got there four hours early, taking a front-row seat so her grandchildren could hear the president and watch the memorial service.
“I want them to know what happened here,” she said.
Two years ago, on the anniversary, Biden issues executive order direct federal agencies to expand access to voter registration, urge agency heads to devise plans for federal employees to take time off to vote or volunteer as nonpartisan poll workers, etc
But many federal agencies are lagging in responding to the voter registration provision ordered by Biden, according to a report released Thursday by the Leadership Conference on Human and Civil Rights. The group says fully implementing the registration efforts in order will mean an additional 3.5 million voter registration applications annually.
Selma officials hope Biden will also tackle the January tornado that ravaged the city and posed a persistent poverty problem in Selma for decades.
Biden approved the disaster declaration and agreed to further assist with cleanup and debris removal, an expense Mayor James Perkins said the small city could not afford on its own.
“I understand other communities of our size and demographics face similar challenges… but I don’t think anyone can claim what Selma has done for this country and the contributions it has made. that we’ve done for this country,” he said.
