(Trends Wide) — President Joe Biden will visit Alabama this Sunday to commemorate the 58th anniversary of the historic Bloody Sunday march that launched the civil rights movement and helped expand voting rights.
Biden’s stop in Selma comes as he and his fellow Democrats struggle to pass their own sweeping voting rights measures, with slim prospects for passage in a Republican-controlled House of Representatives.
Still, Biden plans to make new calls for new voter protections when he speaks from the Edmund Pettus Bridge, where in 1965 a group of civil rights protesters were beaten by white state troopers as they tried to cross.
The president will participate in the annual walk across the bridge to commemorate the events, which sparked outrage and helped rally support for the Voting Rights Act. Among the protesters beaten was the late US representative John Lewis.
Aside from her place in history, Selma is still reeling from the devastating tornadoes that struck two months ago.
It is not the first time that Biden has attended the anniversary events in Selma; In 2020, during his run for president, she spoke at the historic Brown Chapel AME Church as she worked to court Black voters ahead of Super Tuesday.
“We have been dragged back and we have lost ground. We have seen all too clearly that if you give hate a break, it comes back,” he said in his speech then.
Biden would go on to win the Democratic nomination and the presidency, due in large part to support from black voters.
Vice President Kamala Harris, who represented the administration at the anniversary event last year, said in a statement Sunday that “the United States has seen a new assault on voting freedom.”
“Extremists have worked to dismantle election protections that generations of civil rights leaders and advocates fought tirelessly to win. They have purged voters from the lists. Polling places have closed. They have made it a crime to give water to people standing in line,” she said.
During last year’s event, Harris had promised that she and Biden would “put the full power of the executive branch behind our shared effort” while criticizing Republican lawmakers for voting to block passage of the Voting Rights Advancement Act. John Lewis and the Freedom to Vote Act. She called on those gathered at the foot of the Edmund Pettus Bridge to “continue to press the Senate not to allow an arcane rule to deny us the sacred right.”
This Sunday, Biden plans to “talk about the importance of commemorating Bloody Sunday so that history is not erased,” according to White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.
“It will highlight how the continued fight for voting rights is integral to economic justice and civil rights for black Americans,” he said.
Bloody Sunday commemorates when, in 1965, 600 people marched from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, demanding an end to voter registration discrimination. At the Edmund Pettus Bridge, state and local law enforcement officers attacked protesters with clubs and tear gas, forcing them to return to Selma. 17 people were hospitalized and dozens more were injured by the police.
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(Trends Wide) — President Joe Biden will visit Alabama this Sunday to commemorate the 58th anniversary of the historic Bloody Sunday march that launched the civil rights movement and helped expand voting rights.
Biden’s stop in Selma comes as he and his fellow Democrats struggle to pass their own sweeping voting rights measures, with slim prospects for passage in a Republican-controlled House of Representatives.
Still, Biden plans to make new calls for new voter protections when he speaks from the Edmund Pettus Bridge, where in 1965 a group of civil rights protesters were beaten by white state troopers as they tried to cross.
The president will participate in the annual walk across the bridge to commemorate the events, which sparked outrage and helped rally support for the Voting Rights Act. Among the protesters beaten was the late US representative John Lewis.
Aside from her place in history, Selma is still reeling from the devastating tornadoes that struck two months ago.
It is not the first time that Biden has attended the anniversary events in Selma; In 2020, during his run for president, she spoke at the historic Brown Chapel AME Church as she worked to court Black voters ahead of Super Tuesday.
“We have been dragged back and we have lost ground. We have seen all too clearly that if you give hate a break, it comes back,” he said in his speech then.
Biden would go on to win the Democratic nomination and the presidency, due in large part to support from black voters.
Vice President Kamala Harris, who represented the administration at the anniversary event last year, said in a statement Sunday that “the United States has seen a new assault on voting freedom.”
“Extremists have worked to dismantle election protections that generations of civil rights leaders and advocates fought tirelessly to win. They have purged voters from the lists. Polling places have closed. They have made it a crime to give water to people standing in line,” she said.
During last year’s event, Harris had promised that she and Biden would “put the full power of the executive branch behind our shared effort” while criticizing Republican lawmakers for voting to block passage of the Voting Rights Advancement Act. John Lewis and the Freedom to Vote Act. She called on those gathered at the foot of the Edmund Pettus Bridge to “continue to press the Senate not to allow an arcane rule to deny us the sacred right.”
This Sunday, Biden plans to “talk about the importance of commemorating Bloody Sunday so that history is not erased,” according to White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.
“It will highlight how the continued fight for voting rights is integral to economic justice and civil rights for black Americans,” he said.
Bloody Sunday commemorates when, in 1965, 600 people marched from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, demanding an end to voter registration discrimination. At the Edmund Pettus Bridge, state and local law enforcement officers attacked protesters with clubs and tear gas, forcing them to return to Selma. 17 people were hospitalized and dozens more were injured by the police.
