March 5, 2023

On the Anniversary of Bloody Sunday, Biden Calls for Voting Rights Protections

“Everyone should know the truth of Selma.”

President Joe Biden speaks near the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma. Patrick Semansky/AP

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On Sunday, President Joe Biden traveled to Selma, Alabama to commemorate the 58th anniversary of Bloody Sunday, the violent crackdown on voting rights activists, led by the late John Lewis and Hosea Williams, marching across the Edmund Pettus Bridge on their way to Montgomery. The brutal attack perpetrated by state troopers on March 7 left Lewis with a fractured skull and dozens of other peaceful protesters injured. It went on to play a decisive role in the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which was introduced just a few days after the attack to outlaw discriminatory voting practices.

During his speech in Selma, Biden reinforced the need to protect voting rights, a “threshold of democracy.” This fundamental right, he said, is under assault by the conservative Supreme Court and “a wave of states and dozens of voting laws fueled by the Big Lie and the election deniers now elected to office.” 

Then President President Lyndon B. Johnson described Selma as a moment when “history and fate meet at a single time in a single place” to become a turning point in the search for freedom. “This time, on this issue, there must be no delay, no hesitation, and no compromise with our purpose,” Johnson said when calling on Congress to pass the bill. “We cannot, we must not, refuse to protect the right of every American to vote in every election that he may desire to participate in…We have already waited a hundred years and more, and the time for waiting is gone.” 

Biden has advocated for the passage of the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, which would help restore provisions of the landmark legislation weakened by a 2013 Supreme Court decision. Among other things, it would bring back the requirement that states with a history of voting discrimination receive clearance from the federal government before enacting changes in electoral laws and policies. The bill has failed in Congress so far. “I will not let the filibuster obstruct the sacred right to vote,” Biden said on Sunday.

Ahead of the president’s visit, a group of civil rights activists and faith leaders signed a letter demanding action on restoring and expanding voting rights and stating that “Selma is sacred ground, not a place for political pretense.” Selma, they wrote, was “the delivery room where the possibility of a true democracy was born” and anyone coming to that “sacred ground” should “come with a commitment to fight for what these people were willing to give their lives for.” 

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

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