[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 47 (Wednesday, March 11, 2020)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E296-E297]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 COMMEMORATING 55TH ANNIVERSARY OF BLOODY SUNDAY, TURNAROUND TUESDAY, 
              AND THE FINAL MARCH FROM SELMA TO MONTGOMERY

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. SHEILA JACKSON LEE

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, March 11, 2020

  Ms. JACKSON LEE. Madam Speaker, fifty-five years ago, in Selma, 
Alabama, hundreds of heroic souls risked their lives for freedom and to 
secure the right to vote for all Americans by their participation in 
marches for voting rights on ``Bloody Sunday,'' ``Turnaround Tuesday,'' 
or the final, completed march from Selma to Montgomery.
  Those ``foot soldiers'' of Selma, brave and determined men and women, 
boys and girls, persons of all races and creeds, loved their country so 
much that they were willing to risk their lives to make it better, to 
bring it even closer to its founding ideals.
  More than a half century has passed since that day of horror and 
carnage on the bridge, a day so terrible that it was immediately named 
and will be forever known as ``Bloody Sunday.''
  But we will always remember.
  Madam Speaker, people come from all over the world to stand on the 
bridge, ground sanctified and consecrated by the blood and courage and 
sacrifice of nameless, innocent, ordinary persons whose commitment to 
justice changed America for the better.
  People come to Selma and remember Bloody Sunday with reverence and 
awe for the same reasons they visit the beaches of Normandy and the 
cornfields of Gettysburg.
  We remember them because we know in our hearts that President Lyndon 
Johnson was right when he addressed the Congress and the nation the 
evening of March 15, 1965, stating:
  ``At times history and fate meet at a single time in a single place 
to shape a turning point in man's unending search for freedom.
  ``So it was at Lexington and Concord.
  ``So it was a century ago at Appomattox.
  ``So it was last week in Selma, Alabama.''
  On Bloody Sunday, John Lewis and Reverend Hosea Williams led 600 
courageous, unarmed men, women, and children in a peaceful march across 
the Edmund Pettus Bridge from Selma to Montgomery to dramatize to the 
nation the aspiration of African Americans to become full citizens and 
to participate in the political process.
  As they crossed the highest part of the bridge, the marchers were 
viciously attacked

[[Page E297]]

by Alabama state troopers, who ridiculed, tear-gassed, clubbed, spat 
on, whipped and trampled them with their horses.
  In the end, John Lewis's skull was fractured by a state trooper's 
nightstick, and 17 other marchers were hospitalized.
  In direct response to Bloody Sunday, Congress passed, and President 
Lyndon Johnson signed into law the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the 
greatest victory of the Civil Rights Movement, and the most significant 
advance in the field of civil rights and democratic governance since 
the Civil War Amendments of the 1860s.
  Selma marked a turning point in history because it was the place 
where moral courage met and overcame entrenched power.
  The Edmund Pettus Bridge is more than a bridge; it was the portal 
through which America left the dark days of its past and marched into a 
better and brighter future.
  And the trail of that journey is marked by the blood of the foot 
soldiers who led the way.
  Despite, or perhaps because of its proven effectiveness in breaking 
down voting barriers, on June 25, 2013, the Supreme Court, issued the 
shameful decision in Shelby County, Alabama v. Holder, which struck 
down Section 4(b) of the VRA, which immobilized the heart of the Act, 
the preclearance provisions of Section 5.
  The Supreme Court did this even though a bipartisan Congress in 2006 
voted nearly unanimously to reauthorize Section 5 of the Voting Rights 
Act.
  After hearing from more than 90 witnesses with a diverse range of 
views, holding 20 hearings, and evaluating a 15,000-page record, 98 
Senators and 390 House members voted to re-authorize Sections 4(b) and 
5 of the Voting Rights Act.
  Within hours of the Supreme Court's Shelby County decision, the State 
of Texas, where in 2012 alone Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act 
blocked the state's discriminatory photo ID law and intentionally 
discriminatory redistricting plans, announced its intention to 
implement those measures immediately.
  This is only one of many examples of formerly covered states taking 
advantage of the gap in Section 5 protection by reverting back to laws 
that the Voting Rights Act previously blocked.
  The struggle to ensure that all Americans can participate equally in 
the political process continues.
  And that is why I was proud to cosponsor and support H.R. 4, the 
Voting Rights Advancement Act, which corrects the damage done to the 
Voting Rights Act of 1965 and commits the national government to 
protecting the right of all Americans to vote free from discrimination 
and without injustices that previously prevented them from exercising 
this most fundamental right of citizenship.

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