Remembering Bloody Sunday…Restoring and Strengthening the Voting Rights Act
March 7th marked the 60th anniversary of Bloody Sunday, labeled as such because of the state-sanctioned violence inflicted upon magnificently courageous marchers who were determined to end voter suppression.
As the marchers were on the move in Alabama, crossing Selma’s Edmund Pettus Bridge and resolute in their plan to reach Montgomery, they were confronted, then attacked, by county and state police.
The marchers did not retaliate so that the oppressors would be evident, and the injustice would be the focus. They exemplified both soul force and spiritual discipline, essential components of nonviolent [Kingian] direct action.
“We must meet the forces of hate with the power of love; we must meet physical force with soul force.” – Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
“People who think nonviolence is easy don’t realize that it’s a spiritual discipline that requires a great deal of strength, growth, and purging of the self so that one can overcome almost any obstacle for the good of all without being concerned about one’s own welfare.”
-Coretta Scott King
We remember the tragic stain of Bloody Sunday, while also lifting the love-power that was on full display. Thank you to the marchers, including Amelia Boynton Robinson, John Lewis, Hosea Williams, Bob Mants, and Albert Turner, who knew that they were marching into danger and did not turn back because they were focused on moving us forward.
We remember that Bloody Sunday and the later march on Montgomery brought national attention to the injustice of voter suppression and to the inhumanity that transpired that day.
We remember that bold, strategic nonviolent direct action, including the courageous commitment to dramatizing the issue and highlighting the injustice even in the face of violence, shifted public opinion and contributed to the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
We remember that, today, some of the protections against racial discrimination in voting and representation found within the VRA of 1965 have been rolled back and gutted by the Supreme Court, and others are currently threatened.
Therefore, we must not only remember. We must be educated and informed. We must honor. We must advocate. We must act.
Among the courses of advocacy and action is ensuring the passing of H.R. Bill 14, the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, which, on March 5th, was reintroduced by Representative Terri Sewell (D-AL).
*Key Provisions of the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act include:
- Creates a new framework to determine which states and localities will be subject to preclearance.
- Strengthens protections against discrimination and codifies specified prior standards.
- Creates a new cause of action for voters to sue states or localities that implement a voting rule that is more discriminatory against minorities than the rule it replaces.
- Makes some types of voting changes subject to preclearance nationwide, if certain conditions are met, because those changes are so often discriminatory.
Each of these provisions are essential to our charge to, as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “make real the promise of democracy.”
We encourage you to share this article on social media and tag @TheKingCenter so that we can repost.
We implore you to call your Congress members. Tell them to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act.
Remind them that the mission is possible, that we can protect freedom, justice and democracy. And we can do it as the marchers did on Bloody Sunday…in the spirit of Kingian Nonviolence, which The King Center heralds as Nonviolence365.
Let’s remember.
Let’s honor.
Let’s act.
*from The Brennan Center. Learn more about the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act here.
Study Nonviolence365 with The King Center: www.thekingcenterinstitute.org