Activists and Politicians Unite on Civil Rights March Anniversary

The Legacy of Selma and the Threat to Voting Rights

Sixty-one years after state troopers attacked Civil Rights marchers on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, thousands are gathering in the Alabama city this weekend. This year’s anniversary celebrations include events throughout the weekend and a commemorative march across the bridge on Sunday. However, these gatherings come amid new concerns about the future of the Voting Rights Act.

The March 7, 1965, violence that became known as Bloody Sunday shocked the nation and helped spur passage of the landmark legislation that dismantled barriers to voting for Black Americans in the Jim Crow South. But this year’s events are taking place as the US Supreme Court considers a case that could limit a provision of the Voting Rights Act. This provision has helped ensure that some congressional and local districts are drawn in a way that allows minority voters to elect their chosen candidates.

“I’m concerned that all of the advances that we made for the last 61 years are going to be eradicated,” said Charles Mauldin, 78, one of the marchers who was beaten that day.

The Impact of the Supreme Court Case

Justices are expected to rule soon on a Louisiana case regarding the role of race in drawing congressional districts. A ruling prohibiting or limiting that role could have sweeping consequences, potentially opening the door for Republican-controlled states to redistrict and roll back majority Black and Latino districts that tend to favor Democrats.

Democratic officeholders, civil rights leaders, and others have descended on the southern city to pay homage to the pivotal moment of the Civil Rights Movement and to issue calls to action. Like the marchers on Bloody Sunday, they must keep pressing forward, organizers said.

A Reminder of Progress and Challenges

Former state senator Hank Sanders, who helped start the annual commemoration, said the 1965 events in Selma marked a turning point in the nation and helped push the United States closer to becoming a true democracy.

“The feeling is a profound fear that we will be taken back – a greater fear than at any time since 1965,” Sanders said.

US Representative Shomari Figures won election in 2024 to an Alabama district that was redrawn by the federal court. He said what happened in Selma and the subsequent passage of the Voting Rights Act “was monumental in shaping what America looks like and how America is represented in Congress.”

“I think coming to Selma is a refreshing reminder every single year that the progress that we got from the Civil Rights Movement is not perpetual. It’s been under consistent attacks almost since we’ve gotten those rights,” Figures said.

The Courage of the Past

In 1965, the Bloody Sunday marchers led by John Lewis and Hosea Williams walked in pairs across the Selma bridge headed towards Montgomery. Mauldin, then 17, was part of the third pair behind Williams and Lewis.

At the apex of the bridge, they could see the sea of law enforcement officers, including some on horseback, waiting for them. But they kept going. “Being fearful was not an option. And it wasn’t that we didn’t have fear, it’s that we chose courage over fear,” Mauldin recalled in a telephone interview.

“We were all hit. We were trampled. We were tear-gassed. And we were brutalised by the state of Alabama,” Mauldin said.

The Ongoing Struggle for Voting Rights

The legacy of Selma continues to inspire and challenge the nation. As the Supreme Court deliberates on the future of the Voting Rights Act, the voices of those who marched on Bloody Sunday remain a powerful reminder of the importance of protecting voting rights.

The struggle for equality and representation is far from over, and the lessons of the past continue to shape the present and future of American democracy.