By Sym Pose
The Birmingham Times
SELMA – Standing at the foot of the Edmund Pettus Bridge where hundreds of Foot Soldiers were attacked 60 years ago while demonstrating for the right to vote, Alabama Rep. Terri Sewell and several political leaders part of the 2025 Faith and Politics Congressional Civil Rights Pilgrimage spoke forcefully about a continued fight for voters to have a say at the ballot box.
“This year’s theme, ‘Walking Forward Together’ comes in a very challenging time for our democracy, seemingly every day we see new efforts to erase our history or roll back our progress and make it harder for Americans to vote,” Sewell said. Without the full protection of the Voting Rights Act, these efforts go unchecked,” said Sewell.
On March 7, 1965, 600 people, a mixture of Civil Rights leaders and nonviolent activists attempted to march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, including the late Congressman John Lewis, in an effort to fight for African American’s right to vote but their plans were thawed as they were met with brutal violence from Alabama state troopers in what became known as “Bloody Sunday.”
Later that year, the Voting Rights Act passed.
Sewell was joined at Friday’s commemoration by U.S. Senator Angela Alsobrooks (D-MD), U.S. Congressman Jim Clyburn (SC-06), and U.S. Congressman Byron Donalds (FL-19).
“I’m honored every year to be a part of faith in politics pilgrimage,” Sewell said, during a press conference. “It is not just a Republican or Democrat. It’s America’s history that we actually are observing.”
Alsobrooks said she was a direct descendant of the those who marched and made for her to serve as a United States senator.
“I’m reminded not only of their courage and their foresight, but I am deeply grateful that I am here as a result of their efforts,” she said. “I’m reminded as well that I am here as the result of the efforts of my great grandmother, who I think about today, who on July 4, 1956 following the murder of her husband in Seneca, South Carolina, had to make it difficult decision. The family was told that if they didn’t leave, they’d killed the whole family. And within a week’s time she brought our family to a place called Prince George’s County, Maryland.”
Despite many gains over the past 60 years Alsobrooks said “the journey is not over, and so I am here today in solidarity with those who still believe that the best is still coming for our country, recognizing that our efforts that their [marchers] were not in vain, but we still have so much work to do.”
Sewell said the best way to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the march is to pass the John Robert Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act in the House of Representatives which she re-introduced last week.
“Our bill would fully restore the protections of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and ensure that every American has access to the ballot box,” she said.
The bill has previously been introduced but failed to gain traction. Sewell said Friday, “I’m reminded of a scripture that’s one of my favorites. It happens to be Hebrew 11:1. ‘Faith, the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things unseen.’”
