United States Vice President Kamala Harris marked the "Bloody Sunday" anniversary by visiting Selma, Alabama, on Sunday and advocating for voting rights legislation before walking across Edmund Pettus Bridge.
Harris commemorated the defining moment of the fight for equal voting rights amid congressional efforts to restore the landmark 1965 Votings Rights Act faltering. The vice president linked arms with rank-and-file activists from the civil rights movement and led thousands across the bridge.
Bloody Sunday Anniversary
The bridge was where, on Mar. 7, 1965, white state troopers attacked Black voting rights marchers who tried to cross. Photographs of the incident were captured and shocked the nation, helping galvanize support for the passage of the Voting Rights Act.
Before crossing the bridge, which was originally named for a Confederate general, Harris claimed that the site was a hallowed ground where people fought for the "most fundamental right of America citizenship: the right to vote."
"Today, we stand on this bridge at a different time. We again, however, find ourselves caught in between. Between injustice and justice. Between disappointment and determination. Still in a fight to form a more perfect union. And nowhere is that more clear than when it comes to the ongoing fight to secure the freedom to vote," Harris said, as per KSL.
Harris, the country's first female vice president and first African American and Indian American in the position, talked about marchers whose "peaceful protest" was responded to with crushing violence. She noted that the victims of the 1965 incident were kneeling when state troopers charged at them.
At the time, police officers beat and used tear gas on the marchers, causing some to suffer fractured skulls, including young activist John Lewis, considered a lion of the civil rights movement. He went on to a long and celebrated career as a Georgia congressman.
According to the Associated Press, United States President Joe Biden on Sunday renewed his call for the passage of voting legislation, arguing that the groundbreaking Voting Rights Act of 1965 has been "weakened" by insidious court decisions.
Voting Rights Legislation
Both Biden and Harris have worked extensively to have the executive branch's support in their shared efforts. The vice president also criticized Republican lawmakers for voting against the passage of the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act and the Freedom to Vote Act.
After Senate Democrats failed to change filibuster rules to skirt around GOP opposition to advancing voting rights legislation earlier this year, Harris was an advocate for filibuster reform. The vice president urged those who attended the anniversary event at the foot of the Edmund Pettus Bridge to "continue to push the Senate to not allow an arcane to deny us the sacred right" to vote.
There were roughly 600 people in 1965 who marched from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama while demanding an end to discrimination in voter registration. Harris met with civil rights leaders during her trip and she was joined by Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Marcia Fudge, Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan, and Deputy Secretary of Veterans Affairs Donald Remy, CNN reported.
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