US President Joe Biden visited Selma, Alabama on the 5th (local time) to attend the annual celebration where thousands of people gather to mark the 58th anniversary of ‘Bloody Sunday’ and directly talk to black civil rights activists about (black) voting rights issues and more. The Associated Press and Reuters reported that the
Bloody Sunday refers to the anniversary of the bloody violence in Selma, Alabama, on March 7, 1965, when the police brutally suppressed numerous black people marching for suffrage.
However, President Biden has not yet properly implemented the legislation to expand black voting rights, which he made as an election pledge. This visit has rekindled the controversy over this issue.
White House officials tell a new generation of civil rights activists directly that as President Biden reemphasizes the meaning of ‘Bloody Sunday’, history cannot be erased, and that voting rights issues are now a key interface between economic justice and the black civil rights movement. said it was a plan.
The president’s visit this year comes after the small town of Selma, with a population of 18,000, has been largely relieved by damage from a category 2 tornado that hit the area in January, so local residents have high expectations.
In particular, all the houses around the podium where President Biden will give a speech have had their roofs blown off in a storm, and the word “tear down” is written in red paint on half-collapsed, unrecoverable houses.
Ahead of President Biden’s visit, Rev. William Barber, co-representative of the Poor People’s Campaign, a civic group in Selma, expressed his disappointment with the government for not enacting legislation to expand voting rights in an open letter to the president and Congress and took measures. urged
The group criticized Washington politicians who should have enacted legislation on the right to vote for blacks rather than utter empty clichés at a celebration of the past honoring the work of the late black civil rights activists John Lewis and Hosea Williams.
“The passage of black suffrage through Congress after the Selma struggle was not only for blacks, it was a great help to American democracy. We want the President to emphasize this point. Please reaffirm that blocking black voting is not hurting black people, it is hurting America,” Pastor Barber said.
When police crushed 600 peaceful demonstrators at the time, Lewis, the leader, later became a member of the Georgia state legislature, but others fell victim to police brutality as they marched from Selma to the capital, Montgomery, on foot.
At the time, as the scene of police brutality was reported, protest movements of angry citizens arose nationwide. They continued to pray and pray as they marched to the police barrier and bridge.
Then-President Lyndon B. Johnson enacted the “Voting Act” eight days after “Bloody Sunday” in 1965, and in a speech to Congress declared Selma a historic site that had turned American history once and for all.
During the 2020 presidential campaign, President Biden promised to expand black voting rights and protect them extensively. The bill was supposed to protect vulnerable and black voters by fixing unfair election laws and introducing transparent campaign finance laws to prevent anonymous political contributions from wealthy donors.
However, the bill passed the House with a Democratic majority, but failed because it did not get the 60 votes needed to pass the Senate.
With Republicans now holding a majority in the House, the passage of the bill has become more difficult.
Harriet Thomas (76), who participated in the march as a college student at the time of ‘Bloody Sunday’, said, “Everything has its time. Only if President Biden succeeds in his re-election will he be able to do everything he wanted to do for the country,” she said.
Among the hundreds of supporters who gathered in central Selma ahead of Biden’s visit, many were elderly people who had participated in black protests at the time. Delores Gresham (65), a retired health care worker in Birmingham, said he waited in the front row with his grandchildren for four hours before President Biden appeared, saying, “I told the children the words of the president directly and told the history of the day. I want to teach you,” he said.
President Biden did not come here even on ‘Bloody Sunday’ two years ago, but delivered a commemorative speech through a video recording speech. At the same time, he also issued an executive order to expand voting rights that day.
President Biden emphasized, “All voters should be able to vote,” and “Let more people vote.”
The executive order included requiring federal agencies to expand voter registration, submit plans to distribute election information to voters within 200 days, and push for a revamp of the government’s election-related homepage.
However, according to a report released on March 2 by the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, a civil rights movement organization, each agency and public official of the federal government is struggling with the issue of voting rights under Biden’s executive order. It turns out that the meeting is still delayed.
The report also included statistics that indicate that approximately 3.5 million voters will miss each year and will not be able to exercise their right to vote if the contents of this executive order, which repeals various restrictions on voter registration, are not implemented.
Source: Donga
Mark Jones is a world traveler and journalist for News Rebeat. With a curious mind and a love of adventure, Mark brings a unique perspective to the latest global events and provides in-depth and thought-provoking coverage of the world at large.