Thousands descend on Alabama to protest attack on Black Americans’ political power
The rally is a response to the GOP-led states in the South rushing to redraw their congressional maps.
Thousands traveled to the birthplace of the civil rights movement Saturday to protest the Supreme Court decision that weakened the Voting Rights Act, a move organizers view as the latest attack on Black Americans’ political power.
The “All Roads Lead To the South“ National Day of Action for Voting Rights began in Selma, Alabama, where protesters walked across the Edmund Pettus Bridge, the historic location where the brutal attack on voting rights activists led to the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The protest culminated in a rally at the state Capitol in Montgomery.
The rally, organized by Black Voters Matter, the NAACP, and over 90 civil rights, labor and community organizations, is a response to the southern GOP-led states rushing to redraw their congressional maps as November’s midterms approach. Organizers see the rally as the launching point for a new civil rights fight to combat the attacks.
Several members of Congress addressed the throng of protesters, speaking to the urgency of the moment as the United States faces the fiercest rollback of Black political representation in over a century.
“We must remember that this is sacred civic soil that we are standing on,” Sen. Cory Booker told the crowd. “They told our ancestors that democracy could not grow here. But with their hands and toiling in the hot sun, they planted the seeds of the fruit that we now enjoy.”
“If we in our generation do not now do our duty, we will lose the gains and the rights and the liberties that our ancestors afforded us,” the New Jersey Democrat continued.
Related: The Supreme Court has unleashed ‘Jim Crow 2.0’ as the South rolls back Black representation
Black representation in Congress is at risk. Congressional Black Caucus chair Yvette Clarke warned that nearly a third of its members might lose their seats in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision.
“It was not only a legal decision, but it is also a moral disgrace and a shameless assault on Black political power,” said Bernice King, activist and daughter of Dr. Martin Luther King and Coretta Scott King. “It strikes at the very heart of my father and my mother’s sacrifice.”
“It accelerated and fortified state legislators who have been ready and eager to redraw political lines in ways that diminish Black representation in the very southern states where our ancestors contended with poll taxes and literacy tariffs,” she explained.
Alabama and Georgia’s primary elections will take place on May 19.
Watch the full rally below: