DemDaily: Bloody Sunday
March 10, 2025
Sunday marked the 60th anniversary of "Bloody Sunday," when a 25-year-old John Lewis and some 600 peaceful civil rights marchers were brutally attacked in Selma, Alabama.
It was a turning point in the civil rights movement and an indelible reminder of our past, our progress, and -- most vividly -- the magnitude of the challenges we still face in our struggle for a truly democratic society.
The march for voting rights was in response to the February 26, 1965 death of activist Jimmie Lee Jackson, who had been beaten and shot by a state trooper while trying to protect his mother during a peaceful protest in Marion, Alabama.
The March 7th demonstration was to have proceeded from Selma to the State Capitol and Governor George Wallace (D), in Montgomery, 54 miles away. The unarmed protestors, however, were stopped just one mile into their march after crossing the county line on the other side of the Edmund Pettus Bridge -- named for a Confederate general and former Ku Klux Klan Grand Dragon.
Wallace had ordered the troopers, accompanied by a posse of deputized local white men, "to use whatever measures are necessary to prevent a march."
Images of black men, women and children being viciously attacked by troopers were broadcast nationwide. A horrified nation, forced to confront its own prejudice, watched as footage of the bloodied victims, struck with billy clubs, whips, tear gas and baseball bats, played out in black and white across their screens.
Before it was over, 17 marchers would be hospitalized and at least 50 others injured, including Lewis, who suffered severe head injuries.
| "Every American citizen must have an equal right to vote...What happened in Selma is part of a far larger movement which reaches into every section and State of America. It is the effort of American Negroes to secure for themselves the full blessings of American life. Their cause must be our cause too." - President Lyndon Johnson |
The events in Selma galvanized public opinion and mobilized Congress to pass the Voting Rights Act (VRA), which Johnson signed into law on August 6, 1965.
Voting Rights Today
Nearly 60 years later, communities of color are still the victims of extremist laws and voter suppression, despite the congressional passage of major amendments over time extending the VRA's protections.
In 2013, the US Supreme Court, in Shelby v. Holder, struck down the VRA's preclearance provision which required federal oversight of election laws in nine Southern states that had previously been deemed politically discriminatory against minorities.
The high court's ruling opened the floodgates, ushering in a wave of efforts by Republican-controlled state legislatures to reverse earlier VRA protections and enact more aggressive voter suppression laws.
In 2021, in Brnovich v. Democratic National Committee, the Supreme Court further weakened the VRA by rewriting the guidelines for lawsuits under Section Two -- making it more difficult to challenge prejudicial voting laws.
In 2024 alone, at least 317 restrictive bills were considered in 40 states, with at least 10 enacting 19 restrictive laws.
In the 12 years since the Shelby County v. Holder decision gutted a key check against voting restrictions, at least 35 states have enacted 130 restrictive voting laws.
| "So we stand here in support of civil rights, we stand here in support of voting rights, we stand here in support of racial justice, social justice, economic justice. They want us to step back, but we're here to make clear that we are going to fight back until we make sure that America is the better version of herself" - House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) 3/9/25 |
At Sunday's commemoration in Selma, lawmakers and activists called for the passage of the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act (VRAA), which would restore and strengthen parts of the VRA -- most notably the restoration of the preclearance provisions stripped by Shelby.
The bill, which has twice failed passage in Congress, was reintroduced last Wednesday, March 5, as H.R.14 by Congresswoman Terri Sewell (D-AL):
On the "60th anniversary of Bloody Sunday in my hometown of Selma, Alabama, it is clear; the fight for voting rights is just as urgent today as it was decades ago...the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act would restore and modernize the protections of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (VRA), addressing modern-day voter suppression and ensuring every voter, regardless of race or background, has equal access to the ballot box."
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Sources: History.com, CNN, Washington Post, Brennan Center, Axios, Montgomery Advertiser, ACLU
