Biden pays tribute to civil rights activists in Selma on ‘Bloody Sunday’ anniversary

President Joe Biden arrived in Alabama to pay tribute to ‘Bloody Sunday,’ joining thousands of people to commemorate the civil rights movement that led to the passage of historic voting rights 60 years ago.

The visit to Selma is also an opportunity for Biden to speak directly with the current generation of civil rights activists. Many are dejected that Biden has failed to deliver on a campaign promise to bolster voting rights and are eager to see her administration keep the issue in the spotlight.

Biden used his comments to stress the importance of commemorating ‘Bloody Sunday’ so that history is not erased, while trying to show that the fight for voting rights remains an integral part of economic justice and civil rights for all. black Americans, White House officials said.

This year’s commemoration comes as the historic city of about 18,000 is still reeling from the aftermath of an EF-2 tornado in January that destroyed or damaged thousands of properties in and around Selma. The scars from that storm are still evident.

A few blocks from the stage where Biden was going to speak there were houses collapsed or without roofs. Orange spray paint marked the buildings beyond the salvage with instructions to ‘tear down’.

Prior to Biden’s visit, the Rev. William Barber II, co-chairman of the Poor People’s Campaign, and six other activists wrote to Biden and members of Congress to express their frustration at the lack of progress on voting rights legislation. . They urged Washington politicians who visited Selma not to sully the memories of the late civil rights activists John Lewis, Hosea Williams and others with empty platitudes.

“We are saying to President Biden, let’s frame this in America as a moral issue and show how it affects everyone,” Barber said in an interview. ‘When voting rights passed after Selma, it didn’t just help blacks. He helped America itself. We need the president to reframe this: when he blocks voting rights, he’s not just hurting black people. You are hurting America itself.

Few moments have been of such lasting importance to the civil rights movement as what happened on March 7, 1965 in Selma and in the weeks that followed.

Some 600 peaceful protesters led by Lewis and Williams had gathered that day, just weeks after the fatal shooting of a young black man, Jimmie Lee Jackson, by an Alabama police officer.

Lewis, who would later serve in the US House representing Georgia, and others were severely beaten by Alabama police officers and sheriff’s deputies as they attempted to cross Selma’s Edmund Pettus Bridge at the start of what was supposed to be which was a 54 mile hike. to the state capital in Montgomery as part of a larger effort to register black voters in the South

Images of police violence sparked outrage across the country. Days later, civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. led what became known as the “Returnaround Tuesday” march, in which protesters approached a wall of police officers on the bridge and prayed before backing down.

President Lyndon B. Johnson introduced the Voting Rights Act of 1965 eight days after ‘Bloody Sunday,’ calling Selma one of those rare moments in American history where ‘history and destiny meet in one moment’.

On March 21, King started a third march, under federal protection, which grew by the 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 the protection of voting rights. His 2021 legislation, called the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, included provisions to restrict partisan gerrymandering of congressional districts, remove barriers to voting and bring transparency to a campaign finance system that allows donors wealthy finance political causes anonymously.

It passed the then-Democratic controlled House, but failed to get the 60 votes needed to pass the Senate. Now that Republicans control the House, it is highly unlikely that such legislation will pass.

‘Everything takes time. And it might take her another term to really accomplish all the things that she wants to do for the nation,” said Harriett Thomas, 76, who was a college student when she launched the march that would become known as “Bloody Sunday.” ‘

Several hundred lined up in downtown Selma long before Biden’s appearance, including Dolores Gresham, 65, a retired healthcare worker from Birmingham. She arrived there four hours early, taking a front-row seat so her grandchildren could hear the president and watch the commemoration.

“I want them to know what happened here,” he said.

On the anniversary two years ago, Biden issued an executive order ordering federal agencies to expand access to voter registration, asking agency heads to propose plans to give federal employees time off to vote or volunteer as a nonpartisan poll worker, and more .

But many federal agencies are falling behind in enforcing the voter registration provision of Biden’s order, according to a report released Thursday by the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. The group says full implementation of the registration efforts set out in the order would mean an additional 3.5 million voter registration applications a year.

Selma officials hope Biden will also address the January tornado that devastated the city and exposed poverty issues that have persisted in Selma for decades.

Biden approved a disaster declaration and agreed to provide additional help for debris cleanup and removal, a cost Mayor James Perkins said the small town could not afford on its own.

“I understand that other communities our size and our demographics have similar challenges… but I don’t think anyone can claim what Selma has done for this nation and the contributions we’ve made to this nation,” he said.