Today marks the 56th anniversary of "Bloody Sunday", the civil rights march in Selma, Alabama across the Edmund Pettus Bridge, where marchers, including the immortal John Lewis, were brutally beaten by racist cops who stood in their way. The march was specifically to protest the murder of voting rights activist Jimmie Lee Jackson, but took on a greater life as a result of the out-of-control racist violence. The remembrance of that day in 1965 is now celebrated each year with a resonating march at the site.
Amelia Boynton Robinson was one of the marchers 56 years ago. Her great nephew, Elliot Smith, recounts her telling of what happened:
"Until she died at the age of 104, my great-aunt Amelia would solemnly recount that day, which became known as Bloody Sunday, when she and other peaceful marchers fell victim to teargas and beatings. She felt two blows, one on the arm and the other on the head, and fell to the ground unconscious, gasping for breath as Sheriff Jim Clark stood by refusing to offer aid. There were screams, cries and moans for more than a mile, as people were brutally attacked from the front of the line all the way back to Brown’s Chapel AME church, she recounted. Little did they know that Bloody Sunday would mark one of the greatest struggles for freedom and liberation in modern times. As the struggle in Birmingham and the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom produced the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Selma to Montgomery marches led to the Voting Rights Act of 1965."
Yet, as we are seeing today, those voting rights are again imperiled by the same right-wing racist movement that blocked the marchers in 1965. With the Supreme Court's weakening of the Voting Rights Act in 2013, and their continued mischief in support of new efforts by Republican political hacks to suppress black and other minority votes with discriminatory ID laws, gerrymander districts in their favor, and restricting voting sites and early and absentee voting, what happened in Selma looms especially large today.
Fortunately, we have a President that will continue the fight from that day in Selma. President Biden is committed to restoring the Voting Rights Act of 1965 through passage of H.R. 1, the "For The People Act," in addition to signing an Executive Order today promoting greater access to voting.
(photo: Amelia Boynton Robinson following her beating by Alabama cops)
