President Joe Biden arrived in Alabama to pay tribute to the heroes of “Bloody Sunday,” joining thousands for the annual commemoration of the seminal moment in the civil rights movement that led to landmark voting rights legislation nearly 60 years ago.
The visit to Selma was also an opportunity for Biden to speak directly to the current generation of civil rights activists. Many are saddened by Biden’s inability to deliver on his campaign promises to strengthen voting rights and want to see his administration stay in the spotlight.
Biden intends to use his speech to emphasize the importance of commemorating “Bloody Sunday” so that history cannot be erased, while trying to make the case that the struggle for voting rights remains integral to economic justice and civil rights for Black Americans, White House officials said. said.
This year’s commemoration is the historic city of approximately 18,000 still excavating because of January’s EF-2 tornado that damaged or destroyed thousands of properties in and around Selma. The scars of that storm are still visible. Blocks from the stage where Biden is about to speak are houses that have collapsed or are without roofs. Orange spray paint marked the building beyond rescue with instructions to “tear it down.”
Before Biden’s visit, the Reverend 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. He urged Washington politicians visiting Selma not to tarnish the memory of late civil rights activists John Lewis, Hosea Williams and others with empty platitudes.
“We said to President Biden, let’s make this to America a moral issue, and let’s show how it affects everyone,” Barber said in an interview. “When voting rights passed after Selma, it didn’t just help black people. It helped America itself. We need the president to reframe this: When you block voting rights, you don’t just hurt Black people. You hurt America. You.”
Few moments have been as pivotal to the civil rights movement as what happened on March 7, 1965, in Selma and in the weeks that followed.
About 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 soldier.
Lewis, who would later serve in the U.S. House representing Georgia, and others were brutally beaten by Alabama troopers and sheriff’s deputies as they tried to cross Selma’s Edmund Pettus Bridge at the start of their 54-mile march to the state capital in Montgomery as part of an effort to further great to register Black voters in the South
Images of police violence sparked outrage across the country. A few days later, civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. leading what is known as “Turnaround Tuesday”, where marchers approach the police wall on the bridge and pray before returning.
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 fate meet at one time.” On March 21, King began his third march, with federal protection, which swelled to thousands upon reaching the nation’s capital. Five months later, Johnson signed the bill into law.
As a candidate in 2020, Biden has pledged to push for sweeping legislation to improve voting rights protections. His 2021 legislation, called the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, includes provisions to limit partisan gerrymandering in congressional districts, remove barriers to voting and bring transparency to the campaign finance system that allows wealthy donors to donate to political causes anonymously.
It passed the Democratic-controlled House, but failed to draw the 60 votes needed to win the Senate. With Republicans now in control of the House, passage of the legislation is unlikely.
“Everything takes time. And it may take another term to accomplish everything we want for the nation,” said Harriett Thomas, 76, who was a student when she marched in what would become known as the March. as “Bloody Sunday.”
Several hundred lined up in downtown Selma before Biden’s appearance, including Delores Gresham, 65, a retired health worker from Birmingham. He was there four hours early, taking front row seats so his grandchildren could hear the president and see the memorial.
“I want them to know what’s going on here,” he said.
Two years ago on his anniversary, Biden issued an executive order directing federal agencies to expand access to voter registration, asking agency heads to create plans to give federal employees time to vote or volunteer as nonpartisan poll workers, and more. .
But many federal agencies are lagging behind in meeting the vote registration provisions of Biden’s order, according to a report published Thursday by the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. The group says implementing a full registration effort in that order would add 3.5 million voter registration applications annually.
Selma officials hope Biden will also address the January tornado that devastated the city and exposed the poverty problem that has plagued Selma for decades.
Biden approved the disaster declaration and agreed to provide additional help to clean up and remove the debris, a cost that Mayor James Perkins said the small town could not afford on its own.
“I know other communities of our size and demographics have similar challenges … but I don’t think anyone can claim what Selma has done for this nation and the contributions it has made to this country,” he said.