Atty. Voting rights are at risk in much of the country, Gen. Merrick Garland told parishioners at a Selma church service commemorating the 59th anniversary of the attack by Alabama law enforcement officers on civil rights protesters.
Garland said at Bloody Sunday Mass that decisions made by the Supreme Court and lower courts since 2006 weakened the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which was passed in the wake of the police attack. Protesters were beaten by officers on the Edmund Pettus Bridge on March 7, 1965, as they attempted to march through Alabama in support of voting rights. Vice President Kamala Harris was scheduled to lead the annual march across the bridge on Sunday afternoon.
The march and Garland's speech are among dozens of events during the Selma Bridge Crossing Jubilee, which began on Thursday and culminated on Sunday.
Garland said the rulings jeopardized the voting rights of black Americans.
“Since then [court] “There is a significant increase in legislative action that makes it more difficult for millions of eligible voters to vote and elect representatives of their choice,” Garland told congregants at Selma Baptist Church, site of one of the first mass meetings. Voting rights movement.
“These measures include practices and procedures that make voting more difficult; Redistricting maps that harm minorities; “And changes in voting administration that reduce the power of locally elected or nonpartisan election administrators,” he said. “Actions like these threaten the foundation of our system of government.”
Harris spoke at a rally on the bridge after the march about “the legacy of the civil rights movement, addressed the ongoing work to achieve justice for all, and encouraged Americans to continue the fight for basic freedoms that are under attack across the country.”
Khadida Stone, 27, was part of a crowd that gathered at the bridge Sunday in a light rain before the march, and sees the work of today's activists as an extension of those attacked in Selma in 1965. Stone works for the voter engagement group Alabama Forward, and was one of the plaintiffs. In a voting rights case against the state that created an additional congressional district in Alabama with a large number of black voters. Voters will cast their first ballots in that district on Tuesday.
“We have to keep fighting, because [voting rights] “They are under attack,” Stone said.
Commemorating Selma is a frequent stop for Democratic politicians to honor the voting rights movement. Some in the crowd gathered to see Harris express concerns about the upcoming November election and what appears to be a looming rematch between President Biden and former President Trump.
Nita Hill wore a hat that said “Good Trouble,” a phrase associated with the late MP John Lewis, who was beaten on the bridge during Bloody Sunday. Hill, 70, said it was important for Biden's supporters to vote in November.
“I think Trump is trying to bring us back,” said Hill, a retired college payroll specialist.
Harris joined the march in 2022, calling the site sacred ground and urging Congress in her speech to defend democracy by protecting the right to vote. On that anniversary, Harris spoke of the protesters whose “peaceful protest was met with overwhelming violence.”
“They were kneeling when state forces attacked them,” she said at the time. “They were praying when the batons struck.”
Images of the violence at the bridge stunned Americans, helping to galvanize support for the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The law removed barriers preventing blacks from voting.
U.S. Rep. James Clyburn, a Democrat from South Carolina who is leading a pilgrimage to Selma, said he seeks to “remind people that we are celebrating an event that set this country on a better path toward a more perfect union,” but the right to vote remains not guaranteed.
Clyburn sees Selma as a nexus to the voting rights movement of the 1960s, at a time when there are efforts to curtail those rights.
“The Voting Rights Act of 1965 became a reality in August 1965 because of what happened on March 7, 1965,” Clyburn said.
He added: “We are at an inflection point in this country.” “We hope that this year’s walk will allow people to take stock of where we have come.”
Clyburn said he hopes the weekend in Alabama will bring energy and unity to the civil rights movement, and will also benefit the city of Selma.
“We need to do something to develop the waterfront, we need to do something that brings industry back to Selma,” Clyburn said. “We have to do something to compensate them after they lost that military facility there that provides all the jobs. All of that is disappearing, and there is nothing to keep the young people involved in the development of their communities.
Chandler writes for the Associated Press. AP reporters Terry Spencer in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Stephen Groves in Washington and Jeff Martin in Atlanta contributed to this report.
