Biden will speak in Alabama on the 58th anniversary of ‘Bloody Sunday’
2023.03.05 13:33
Biden will speak in Alabama on the 58th anniversary of ‘Bloody Sunday’
By Tiffany Smith
Budrigannews.com – During a visit to Alabama on Sunday to commemorate the 58th anniversary of “Bloody Sunday,” when state troopers beat peaceful protesters marching against discrimination, President Joe Biden will make his case for stronger voting rights.
Biden’s excursion to Selma is his most recent occasion pointed toward highlighting his obligation to Dark citizens, who impelled him to the White House and stay a key voting public going into his normal 2024 re-appointment bid.
Biden’s efforts to pass voting rights legislation have also stalled in Congress.
The president will give a speech at the Edmund Pettus Bridge, where state troopers attacked voting rights marchers in 1965, including Black civil rights activist John Lewis, who went on to become a U.S. congressman. State troopers also used tear gas and clubbed the marchers.
The brutality was covered, which shocked the nation and sparked the 1965 Voting Rights Act.
Karine Jean-Pierre, a spokesperson for the White House, informed reporters on Friday that “President Biden will talk about the importance of commemorating Bloody Sunday so that history cannot be erased.” He will emphasize the significance of the ongoing struggle for voting rights in achieving economic justice and civil rights for Black Americans.
The Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, two bills that would make Election Day a holiday, register new voters, and strengthen the U.S. Justice Department’s oversight of local election jurisdictions that have a history of discrimination, have been Biden’s primary strategies for garnering support.
The measures are opposed by Republicans, who hold control of the U.S. House of Representatives.
The president, who has stated that he intends to run for reelection, has attempted to garner the support of African American voters for himself. The Democratic National Committee approved a change to the party’s 2024 primary calendar last month, moving South Carolina, a state with a high percentage of Black voters, ahead of Iowa to host the race for president.
Biden made a speech in January at the Atlanta church of Martin Luther King Jr., the civil rights leader who was killed. Biden’s trip to Selma comes after Vice President Kamala Harris went there last year to commemorate the march’s anniversary. In 2015, former President Barack Obama gave a speech at the 50th anniversary of the march and walked across the bridge with his wife Michelle, former Republican President George W. Bush, and his wife Laura.
