![]() ![]() Ora Bell Shannon, 90, of Selma, was a young mother during the march and ran from the bridge with her children. I wouldn’t think in 2022 we would have to do all over again what we did in 1965,” Boynton said. “And now they are trying to take our voting rights from us. They were beating people,” Boynton said recalling Bloody Sunday.īut Boynton said the anniversary is tempered by fears of the impact of new voting restrictions being enacted. “I was at the tail end and all of the sudden I saw these horses. “That’s why we marched,” said Betty Boynton, the daughter-in-law of voting rights activist Amelia Boynton. Two women who fled the violence said having a Black woman as vice president seemed unimaginable 57 years ago. Harris walked across the bridge beside Charles Mauldin, who was sixth in line behind Lewis on Bloody Sunday and was beaten with a night stick. Supreme Courtdecision in 2013.Īmong those gathered Sunday were rank-and-file activists from the 1965 march. A key provision of the law was tossed out by a U.S. We are determined to honor that legacy by passing legislation to protect the right to vote and uphold the integrity of our elections,” Biden said in a statement.ĭemocrats have been unsuccessfully trying to update the landmark law and pass additional measures to make it more convenient for people to vote. “In Selma, the blood of John Lewis and so many other courageous Americans sanctified a noble struggle. The proposed legislation is named for Lewis, who died in 2020, and is part of a broader elections package that collapsed in the U.S. Government Can't Mandate Coverage for Drugs That Prevent HIV Infections, Texas Federal Judge Rules And nowhere is that more clear than when it comes to the ongoing fight to secure the freedom to vote.” Still in a fight to form a more perfect union. Between disappointment and determination. “We again, however, find ourselves caught in between. “Today, we stand on this bridge at a different time,” Harris said in a speech before the gathered crowd. Harris called the site hallowed ground where people fought for the “most fundamental right of American citizenship: the right to vote.” The images of violence at the Edmund Pettus Bridge - originally named for a Confederate general - shocked the nation and helped galvanize support for passage of the Voting Rights Act. Under a blazing blue sky, Harris linked arms with rank-and-file activists from the civil rights movement and led thousands across the bridge where, on March 7, 1965, white state troopers attacked Black voting rights marchers attempting to cross. Vice President Kamala Harris visited Selma, Alabama, on Sunday to commemorate a defining moment in the fight for equal voting rights, even as congressional efforts to restore the landmark 1965 Voting Rights Act have faltered.
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