Selma, Ala. (AP) – Vice President Kamla Harris told thousands of people gathered for the 59th anniversary on the march of Civil Rights in Selma, Alabama that fundamental freedom, including the right to vote, is still attacking in the US.
Harris Edmund joined the people gathered in the foot of the petts, where the polling rights workers were beaten back by law enforcement officers in 1965. The Vice President praised the bravery of the march for engaging in a decisive moment of civil rights struggle.
Harris said, “Today, we know that our fight for freedom is not over, because at this moment we are watching a complete view on hard work, a full-fledged attack on freedom of winning, which starts with freedom that unlocks all others, freedom to vote,” Harris said.
He criticized attempts to ban voting, including boundaries on absent voting and early voting, and said the nation is again at a crossroads.
“What kind of country do we want to live in? Do we want to live in the country of freedom, freedom and justice? Or country of injustice, hatred and fear? “Harris encouraged people to respond with his vote.
He paid tribute to the civil rights march crossing the bridge in 1965, knowing that he would “face some violence in search of a future which was more equal, more just and more independent”.
Since 2006, the Supreme Court and the decisions of the lower courts have weakened the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which was passed in view of police attacks in Selma. The protesters were beaten by officials on the Admond Pettus Bridge on 7 March 1965, as they tried to march in Alabama to support voting rights.
Harris attracted similarities among those who worked to stifted civil rights agitation and “extremists”, stating that they were trying to ban voting, education and reproductive care.
He said that in other fundamental freedom under the attack, “the freedom of a woman is the freedom to decide about her body,” a reference to the state abortion ban. He emphasized the support of the Biden administration for a six -week ceasefire in Gaza, “to take out the hostages and get a significant amount of aid.”
Under a blazing blue sky, Harris led the crowd at the Edmund Pettus Bridge in March, concluding the annual memory. Thousands of people, sometimes sing hymns and songs of the movement of civil rights, in which “no one is going to score me ‘.”
Earlier on Sunday, Attorney General Meric Garland spoke in a Selma Church service, in which the anniversary of the attack by Alabama’s law officials on protesters of civil rights was marked. He said that the recent court decisions and some state laws have endangered voting rights in most parts of the country.
“Since the decision of those (court), there has been a dramatic increase in legislative measures, which makes millions of eligible voters to vote and select representatives of their choice,” Garland told the worshipers at Selma’s Tabrical Bapptist Church, one of the first collective meetings before the movement of voting rights.
“Measures include practices and procedures that make voting more difficult; Relating maps that damage minorities; And changes in polling administration which are locally elected or reduced the rights of non -election administrators, ”he said. “Such measures threaten the foundation of our system of the government.”
March and Garland’s speech Selma Bridge Crossing was one of dozens of events during Jubilee, which began on Thursday and ended on Sunday.
The memory is a frequent stop for democratic politicians who pay tribute to the voting rights movement. Some people in the crowd gathered to see Harris speaking about the upcoming November election and the President seems to have a brilliant rematch between Biden and former President Donald Trump.
27 -year -old Khadidah Stone, a crowd part of a crowd was part of a crowd on the bridge in light rain before March, stated that she sees the work of today’s workers as an extension of those who were attacked in Selma in 1965. The Stone Voter works for the engagement group Alabama, and was a plaintiff in the voting rights case against the state, which was a plaintiff for each other. Voters will cast their first ballot in that district on Tuesday.
“We have to continue fighting, because they (voting rights) are attacking,” Stone said.
Neeta Hill wore a hat, stating that “good trouble”, a phrase associated with late rape. John Lewis, who was beaten on the bridge during the bloody Sunday. 70 -year -old Hill said that it is important for Biden supporters to vote in November.
“I believe Trump is trying to withdraw us,” said a retired university parole expert Hill.
Decades ago, images of violence that shocked Americans on the bridge, which helped support the 1965 Voting Rights Act. The law killed the black people from voting and killed obstacles.
US rape. James Claburn, a Democrat from South Carolina, who is leading a pilgrimage to Selma, said he said “he is demanding to remind people that we are celebrating an incident that started this country towards a more perfect union on a better road,” but the right to vote is still not guaranteed.
Clibs saw Selma as Nexus for voting rights of the 1960s movement, at a time when efforts are currently to return those rights.
“The 1965 Voting Rights Act became a reality in August 1965 as it took place on 7 March 1965.”
“We are at a divine point in this country,” he said. “And hopefully this year’s March will allow people to stock up where we are.”
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