Six decades after the March to Selma and following the SCOTUS’s recent decision to gut the Voting Rights Act, thousands of demonstrators converged on the historic stretch between Selma and Montgomery today, for the “All Roads Lead to the South- National Day of Action for Voting Rights” mass mobilization.
Responding to a surge of redistricting efforts aimed at dismantling Black political representation across Southern states, a new generation of civil rights leaders stood where history was written, transforming raw anger into a strategic battle cry and a call to action.
Begining with a morning prayer at the foot of the Edmund Pettus Bridge to the climactic rally on the steps of the Alabama State Capitol, the day’s speeches rejected the notion of retreat. A plethora of prominent advocates, organizers, clergy, and elected officals delivered powerful orations that characterized this moment as a modern “Freedom Summer“—pledging that the sacrifices of the ancestors will not be in vain.
Randall Woodfin, mayor of Birmingham, AL, reminded the demonstrators about how the freedom fighters generations before them were the “real foot soldiers.”
”Let’s remember we are descendants of real foot soldiers. Some of them, at the age of 10,11, and 12, were not afraid of dogs and not afraid of fire hoses,” Woodfin said. “We have to remember who we are.”
Napoleon Bracy Jr., chair of the Alabama Legislative Black Caucus, said we should say “hell no to taxation without representation.”
”You passed the first White House of the Confederacy on your way here today. We knew they would do what they’re doing, and they have the nerve to tell us that they could better represent us than we can represent ourselves,” said Bracy. “But let me tell you what we get when they represent us. We get racist ass maps when they represent us.
Steven. L. Reed, the first Black Mayor of Montgomery, spoke about the long political history of his city and the resistance of Black people.
“It’s up to us to make sure that we call the truth for what it is, and we call the liars for who they are. We’re here in Montgomery, not as a stopping point, but a starting point,” Reeed said. “We are here in this city because of the spirit, the courage, and the commitment of our forefathers and foremothers, who brought us to this point, [where we have] the most multiracial, multicultural, multigenerational America that exists. We will not be silenced because of a select few that want to take us back.”
Monica Riley, Executive Director of the Alabama Alliance, spoke about the importance of organizational power.
”If they are organizing to take power, then we will organize to protect it,” Riley said.
Alabama State Representative Juandalynn Givan described the mass demonstration as a “holy” moment.
”I need you all to understand that we are standing on holy ground. We are standing on the ground that Black heads helped to build…” said Givan. “And we are standing in a place where we will not allow them to take us back.
Rukia Lumumba, Executive Director, People’s Advocacy Institute & Co-Coordinator of the Electoral Justice Project, said that the state Mississippi is connected to Black people’s struggle for freedom in America.
“Mississippi has been the testing ground for America’s democracy itself,” Lumumba said. “Every major fight for voting rights in this country carries the fingerprints of Black Mississippians who risk their jobs, who risk their safety, who risk their lives to make democracy real.”
Rev. Dr. Jamal H. Bryant, pastor of the New Birth Baptist Church in Lithonia, GA, said that he called the CDC and informed them that there is an “epidemic” of freedom fighting breaking out across the South.
“Today is the death of the Confederacy, “Bryant said. “They’re trying to silence our voices, they’re trying to misrepresent our representatives, they’re trying to choose their own districts. But we have to remind America that we built this nation off our blood, our sweat, and our tears. And if you can’t give us reparations, the least you can do is give us our representatives.”
Sen.Cory Booker of New Jersey said that the protest was a “civic altar call.
What is the northern boy doing here? It’s because all roads lead to the South,” Booker explained. We all must remember now that this is sacred civic soil that we are standing on. They told our ancestors that democracy could not grow here, but with their hands and their toiling in the hot sun and dark nights, they planted the seeds of the fruit we now enjoy.”
