In Selma on Sunday, President Joe Biden claimed voting rights are “under assault” in Alabama as the Supreme Court continues to deliberate on the legality of the state’s 2021 redistricting plan.
Despite nearly 27% of Alabama’s population being black, only one of the state’s seven Congressional Districts are majority black, a fact that critics argue is a violation of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Lawmakers who passed the updated maps say they were drawn to comply with the 14th Amendment to the Constitution and the Voting Rights Act, and that the 7th Congressional District has been specifically drawn to protect the state’s one majority-minority district since the late 1980s.
‘Bloody Sunday’
Biden’s visit was to commemorate the 1965 Selma to Montgomery marches, a landmark moment during the civil rights movement that culminated in a violent attack on protesters by police known as ‘Bloody Sunday.’
Around 600 protesters began a march toward Montgomery from Selma, and were eventually confronted and attacked by police at the Edmund Pettus Bridge, named after Confederate General and Ku Klux Klan leader Edmund Pettus. In total, 17 protesters were hospitalized, including 14-year-old Lunda Lowery, who required 35 stitches to her head after being beaten by police.
The marches, which saw participants such as Martin Luther King Jr. and John Lewis, were motivated in large part by voter suppression laws in Dallas County. Voting laws required voters to pay a poll tax, as well as pass literacy and constitution comprehension tests. These laws largely disenfranchised Selma’s black and poor white community, which despite having 15,000 black residents old enough to vote in 1961, had only 130 registered to do so.
Broadcast across the world, the shocking violence motivated Congress to pass the Voting Rights Act of 1965 within a matter of weeks, outlawing state and local governments from arbitrary voting laws that disenfranchised voters based on ethnicity.
Biden’s remarks
Biden was joined in Selma by U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell, as well as a number of civil rights advocates including Al Sharpton, Charles Mauldin and Jesse Jackson. Jackson, whose civil rights advocacy goes back to as early as 1960, could be seen sporting a pin brandishing the logo of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, a leftist movement founded by American activist Fred Hampton.
Following remarks made by Sewell and Mauldin, Biden made his way to the podium setup in front of Edmund Pettus Bridge and delivered remarks to well over a thousand spectators.
“Alabama enacted a new congressional map that discriminated against black voters by failing to include what should’ve been a new predominately black district,” Biden said.
“That case, as you all know better than I, is in front of the U.S. Supreme Court, and my Department of Justice has joined many of you in arguing that the map violates the Voting Rights Act.”
Known as Allen v. Milligan, the case being heard by the Supreme Court was brought by a group of Alabama voters who allege the 2021 Alabama redistricting plan violated Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. The court’s decision is still pending.
“The right to vote and to have your vote counted is the threshold of democracy and liberty; with it, anything is possible,” Biden said.
“Without that right, nothing is possible, and this fundamental right remains under assault. The conservative Supreme Court has gutted the Voting Rights Act over the years. Since the 2020 election, a wave of anti-voting laws (were enacted) fueled by the big lie, and election deniers (are) now elected to office.”
Alabama argued in court filings that the state’s Black population is too spread out to be able to create a second majority district without abandoning core redistricting principles such as keeping districts compact and keeping communities of interest together, The Associated Press previously reported. Drawing such a district, the state argued, would require mapping acrobatics, such as connecting coastal areas in southwest Alabama to peanut farms in the east.
Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall previously told the AP that the map is “based on race-neutral redistricting principles that were approved by a bipartisan group of legislators.” He said it looks similar to three prior maps, including one cleared by the Justice Department and another enacted in the 2000s by “the Democrat-controlled Legislature.”
Alabama Daily News has previously reported that in trying to get two majority minority districts, the Black majority would be so thin, they could lose minority representation in both districts.
Biden championed his passing of the Electoral Count Reform Act – a bill that mandates state electors cannot be changed after an election – but advocated for Congress to pass the John Lewis Voting RIghts Advancement Act, as well as the Freedom to Vote Act.
The John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act would establish criteria for states or political subdivisions to change voting practices, whereas the Freedom to Vote Act would expand voter registration and voting access through same-day registration and other provisions. Both bills are currently making their way through Congress.
“My message to you is this: We see you, we’re fighting to make sure no one is left behind,” Biden said.
“This is a time of choosing, and we need everybody engaged. We know history does not look kindly on those who deny the march across the bridge to redeem the soul of America.”
Following his remarks, Biden and local leaders and activists marched across the Edmund Pettus Bridge, with well over a thousand spectators following shortly thereafter.
