EDITOR'S NOTE: ADDITIONAL SELMA PHOTO POSTED IN VERN SMITH STORY.
March 9, 2015
On 50th Anniversary of 'Bloody Sunday', Obama Calls for Restoration of Voting Rights Act
President Barack Obama speaks near the Edmund Pettus Bridge, Saturday, March 7, 2015, in Selma, Ala. This weekend marks the 50th anniversary of “Bloody Sunday,’ a civil rights march in which protestors were beaten, trampled and tear-gassed by police at the Edmund Pettus Bridge, in Selma. PHOTO: The White House
President Barack Obama, fourth from left, listens to Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., as he speaks about “Bloody Sunday” as they and the first family, civil right leaders, and members of Congress, walk across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala., for the 50th anniversary of the landmark event of the civil rights movement, Saturday, March 7, 2015. From left are Sasha Obama, first lady Michelle Obama, Lewis, Obama, Amelia Boynton, who was beaten during “Bloody Sunday,” and Adelaide Sanford, also in a wheelchair. Photo: The White House
Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from the Afro America Newspaper
(TriceEdneywire.com) - Walking arm-in-arm across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala., President Obama, his family, former President George W. Bush, Congressman John Lewis and a group of notables marked the 50th anniversary of the “Bloody Sunday” march.
At the March 7 event, which drew thousands from around the country, Obama expressed hope for the country’s continued progress toward racial equality, and called upon lawmakers to reinvigorate the Voting Rights Act. The act was a key piece of civil rights legislation that emerged after 600 marchers were attacked by state police on the bridge in 1965.
“The Voting Rights Act was one of the crowning achievements of our democracy, the result of Republican and Democratic efforts,” Obama said. “President Reagan signed its renewal when he was in office. President George W. Bush signed its renewal when he was in office. One hundred members of Congress have come here today to honor people who were willing to die for the right to protect it. If we want to honor this day, let that hundred go back to Washington and gather four hundred more, and together, pledge to make it their mission to restore that law this year. That’s how we honor those on this bridge.”
Obama and his wife and daughters were among a group of approximately 50 people who retraced the walk across the bridge. Among them was Lewis, a leading civil rights figure who was present on March 7, 1965 and suffered a fractured skull that day. During the anniversary walk, the group stopped halfway across the bridge to listen to Lewis recount the events he witnessed.
The anniversary came in a week which saw the release of a scathing Justice Department report detailing pervasive racism in the Ferguson, Mo. police and judicial system. While some have pointed to the report as evidence of the nation’s ongoing struggle with racial equality, in Selma, Obama expressed optimism in the progress he believes the country has made.
“What happened in Ferguson may not be unique, but it’s no longer endemic,” Obama said. “It’s no longer sanctioned by law or by custom. And before the Civil Rights Movement, it most surely was.”
Also present for the anniversary were a handful of other original 1965 marchers, including 103-year-old Amelia Boynton Robinson, one of the march’s organizers who was beaten unconscious by police that day. Robinson was present when President Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act into law, and on March 7 was greeted by Obama and his family.
“Fifty years from Bloody Sunday, our march is not yet finished, but we’re getting closer,” the president said. “Two hundred and thirty-nine years after this nation’s founding our union is not yet perfect, but we are getting closer. Our job’s easier because somebody already got us through that first mile. Somebody already got us over that bridge.”