{"id":999545,"date":"2023-02-20T23:07:25","date_gmt":"2023-02-20T23:07:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/news\/selma-bloody-sunday-voting-rights"},"modified":"2023-02-20T23:07:25","modified_gmt":"2023-02-20T23:07:25","slug":"dem-leaders-urged-to-mark-bloody-sunday-by-acting-on-voting-rights-economic-justice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2023\/02\/20\/dem-leaders-urged-to-mark-bloody-sunday-by-acting-on-voting-rights-economic-justice\/","title":{"rendered":"Dem Leaders Urged to Mark Bloody Sunday by Acting on Voting Rights, Economic Justice"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Selma is sacred ground. It is, in a very real sense, the delivery room where the possibility of a true democracy was born. It is no place to play or to be for political pretense. Either you're serious or not. If you're coming, come on Sunday, the actual day of remembrance. If you're coming, come with a commitment to fight for what these people were willing to give their lives for.\"<\/p>

That's the message that faith and rights leaders sent in a Monday letter to U.S. President Joe Biden and members of Congress ahead of the anniversary of Bloody Sunday\u2014when white police officers violently assaulted civil rights advocates, including future Congressman John Lewis<\/a> (D-Ga.), as they marched across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Alabama on March 7, 1965.<\/p>

The sign-on letter is led by the co-chairs of the Poor People's Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival\u2014Bishop William Barber II and Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis\u2014along with former Democratic Alabama state Sen. Hank Sanders, Faya Rose Tour\u00e9, Rev. Mark Thompson, Rebecca Marion, and Rev. Carolyn Foster. It is open for signature<\/a> on the Repairers of the Breach website.<\/p>

\"#SelmaIsSacredGround, not a place for political pretense.\"<\/p>

\"This is a critical year in the life of our country,\" the seven initial signatories wrote. \"On the one hand, the president and progressive members of Congress have fought to pass policies that have lifted up Americans in many ways. From Covid relief measures to infrastructure investments to child tax credits that lifted millions of children out of poverty (for a brief moment) to the appointment<\/a> of the first Black woman Supreme Court Justice, we can celebrate some real progress.\" \"But, on the other hand, with a Democratic president and control of the House and Senate for two years, Democratic leadership was unable<\/a> to raise the federal minimum wage,\" they continued, also noting that a few obstructionist Democrats repeatedly helped<\/a> Senate Republicans block efforts to restore the Voting Rights Act by supporting<\/a> the filibuster.<\/p>

That obstruction, they explained, enabled \"regressive legislative bodies across the nation to pass more voter suppression bills than any time since Jim Crow and to go through another round of dangerous redistricting, which nullifies the potential power of progressive voting coalitions by stacking and packing votes in certain districts to predetermine outcomes before any vote is cast.\"<\/p>

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\\u201cAhead of the 58th anniv. of Bloody Sunday, @brepairers is joined in this call by Rev. Liz Theoharis @liztheo, Hank Sanders, Faya Rose Toure, Rev. Mark Thompson @ministter, Rebecca Marion, Board Chair, Bridge Crossing Jubilee, Rev. Carolyn Foster of the @AlabamaPPC, and others.\\u201d<\/div> \u2014 Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II (@Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II)\n 1676925038<\/a>\n<\/blockquote>\n