President Biden said in his speech that Congress must pass the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act and the Freedom to Vote Act. 'Selma is a reckoning. The right to vote and to have your vote counted is the threshold of democracy and liberty.'
A critical day in the Civil Rights movement, "Bloody Sunday" in 1965 saw a peaceful demonstration demanding, in part, for an expansion of voting rights end with police beating demonstrators.
The Edmund Pettus Bridge was the site of an attack by law enforcement and other spectators on roughly 600 Civil Rights demonstrators, including future Georgia Rep. John Lewis, who planned to march the 54 miles from Selma to Alabama's capital city of Montgomery. As the group approached the bridge, they were met by state troopers who attacked with whips, billy clubs and tear gas. Footage of the beatings were broadcast on television and photos published in newspapers, prompting national outrage and protests across the U.S., which prohibits discrimination in voting.
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