Voting Rights: The Struggle Continues

For decades in the American South the most fundamental democratic rights, including voting rights, were denied to African Americans.  The state of Alabama was widely known for its egregious and discriminatory laws and practices.  The people of Alabama and their allies across the country stood up and defeated these attacks on democracy.  A decisive turning point in this struggle came in 1965 when demonstrators marched across the Edmund Pettus Bridge from Selma to Montgomery to demand an end Alabama’s attacks on democracy.  The marchers were met with brutality, but they persevered and forced Alabama to change its course.  They changed Alabama and this country.

Today nearly 50 years later, Alabama leads a new wave of attacks on democracy.  Like so many states across the country, Alabama is suppressing voting rights, workers’ rights, and immigrant rights.  Again people from Alabama and across the country have taken up the struggle for democracy.  People will come from across the region, and the country to join the people of Alabama to again march from Selma to Montgomery to again demand justice.

Join the march in Alabama, March 4 – 9.  The march will begin on Sunday, March 4 at 1:30 PM in Selma, Alabama at the Brown Chapel AME Church and proceed to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge just as courageous demonstrators did on Bloody Sunday in 1965. The march will continue over the next four days focusing on education, the plight of Black farmers, workers’ rights, voting rights, and immigrant rights.  The focus on workers’ rights will be on March 7.  The march will end on March 9 in Montgomery, Alabama.  For more information, contact TWU Director of Civil and Human Rights Sandra Burleson at sburleson@twu.org, or click here.