Harris joined ranks with civil rights activists and led thousands of people across the bridge. This bridge was where white troopers attacked Black voting rights protesters who attempted to cross it on March 7, 1965. Images of violence at Edmund Pettus Bridge, originally named after a Confederate general, shocked the nation and helped to galvanize support of the Voting rights Act.
Harris described the site as “hallow ground” where people fought for what Harris called the “most fundamental right American citizenship: the right vote.”
Harris spoke before the crowd, “Today we stand on that bridge at a different moment.” “We find ourselves again caught between. Between justice and injustice. Between despair and determination. We are still fighting for a better union. This is more evident than in the ongoing struggle to secure the right to vote.
The first woman vice president of the nation, as well as the first African American Indian American to hold the position, spoke out about protesters whose peaceful demonstration was met with brutal violence. The state troopers arrived and they found them kneeling. They were praying when they were struck by the billy clubs.”
The marchers were tear-gassed by police, and the skull of John Lewis , a young activist in the civil rights movement, was fractured by them. Lewis went on to a long and distinguished career as a Georgia Congressman.
Sunday’s call by President Joe Biden for passage of voting legislation was renewed by him. He stated that the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which was groundbreaking, had been “weakened not by brute power, but by insidious courts decisions.”
The legislation proposed is named after Lewis, who died in 2020. It is part of an broader election package that fell in the U.S. Senate earlier in this year.
“In Selma the blood of John Lewis, and so many brave Americans, sanctified an noble struggle. Biden stated in a statement that he is determined to honor this legacy by passing legislation to preserve the right to vote, and to uphold the integrity our elections.
Democrats have failed to update the landmark law or pass additional measures that would make it easier for voters to vote. In 2013, a U.S. Supreme Court ruling tossed out a key provision of the law.
On Sunday, rank-and-file activists who marched in 1965 were among those present. Harris was walking alongside Charles Mauldin across the bridge, sixth in line after Lewis on Bloody Sunday. He was then beaten with a nightstick.
Two women who fled violence claimed that a Black woman serving as vice president was unimaginable 57 year ago.
Betty Boynton, daughter-in-law to Amelia Boynton, a voting rights activist’s daughter, said “That’s why they marched.”
“I saw the horses when I was at the tail end. Oh my goodness! All of a sudden,… I saw smoke. I didn’t understand what tear gas was. They were beating people,” Boynton recalled, recalling Bloody Sunday.
Boynton stated that the anniversary was tempered by concerns about the effects of new voting restrictions.
“And now, they are trying to remove our voting rights. Boynton stated that he didn’t believe 2022 would be the same as 1965.
Ora Bell Shannon (90), of Selma was a young mother who ran from the bridge with her kids during the march. She and other Black citizens waited in line for days to register to vote in Selma, a city then controlled by whites. They were subject to difficult voter tests and long lines.
Shannon said, “They knew you wouldn’t pass the test.”
In 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court deleted a section of 1965 law that required states with a history discriminating in voting to obtain U.S. Justice Department approval prior to changing their election system.
Supporters of ending preclearance stated that the requirement, while still necessary in the 1960s, was no longer required. Voting rights activists warn that the elimination of preclearance could encourage states to adopt new voting restrictions. Freedom to Vote: John R. Lewis Act, which would reinstate preclearance and establish national standards for how elections work — such as making Election Day a national holiday or allowing early voting nationwide
