Washington, D.C. — Friday we remembered the 60th anniversary of the March on Selma, Alabama where 600 men and women protested the killing of civil rights leader Jimmie Lee Jackson as well as segregationist laws that denied Black Americans’ their right to vote.
Police confronted protesters on the Edmund Pettus Bridge with violence as makeshift weapons, fire hoses, and attack dogs were deployed against the peaceful crowd.
John Lewis, a leader of the civil rights movement and Chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), had his skull cracked and feared he would not make it home. Reverend Hosea Wiliams of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference was beaten unconscious by police. Hundreds more were injured in the march that came to be known as Bloody Sunday. Yet their movement continued.
Two days later, protestors returned to Selma to march through the streets—still stained with marks of violence—to show that the movement for racial justice and voting rights could not be suppressed.
Ten years ago, President Obama declared that the march was a “contest to determine the true meaning of America” arguing that there “is no greater form of patriotism… than the belief that America is not yet finished.” He then argued that it is up to “each successive generation” to continue calling out our nation’s imperfections and fight for a more equitable future.
We are engaged in that fight more than ever as the same demands from Selma are being denied by anti-democratic forces today. Sixty years later, lawmakers continue to target poor and Black communities through voter suppression laws at the federal, state, and local levels. Sixty years from Selma:
- A captive court system has overturned key elements of the Voting Rights Act in Shelby v, Holder, allowing states to freely suppress voters without federal oversight;
- Lawmakers are poised to push the SAVE Act through Congress, to mandate national voter ID which would disenfranchise millions;
- Conservative voices seek to give full immunity to the police who continue to harass and murder citizens of color; and,
- The President has begun pulling funding from universities where students engaged in their right to protest.
It feels like a dark time to fight for the rights of the oppressed and stand with those being silenced. However, at this time, the memory of Selma should be a memory of hope. The memory of Selma is a reminder that even against violent resistance and hatred, even against the anti-democratic forces of the world, justice can persevere. Five years before his death, on the 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday, John Lewis explained that we remember Selma to be both “renewed” and “reminded” of “the work that justice and equality calls us to do.”
As we remember this violent moment in our history, we heed Lewis’ advice to, “not get lost in a sea of despair” and to instead “stand up for what you believe.”
What we believe in is a just and inclusive democracy for all. We believe in voting rights for all. That is why we are proud to cheer on our allies as they reintroduced the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act last week in the United States Congress. We also cheer on our allies as they introduce Voting Rights Acts across our country in states like Connecticut and Maryland.
We commit to backing these bills and encourage our student supporters to show up with us as we champion them in the statehouses and in the streets.
Sixty years since Selma, the movement for voting rights lives on!
Students: Join the Students for Voting Rights campaign here.
