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SELMA, Alabama-President Joe Biden marched with Civil Right leaders and activists across the Edmund Pettus Bridge on Sunday, March 5, 2023 to commemorate the 58th anniversary of "Bloody Sunday," the Sunday 58 years ago where activists were beaten and brutalized by police for marching across the bridge from Montgomery, Alabama to Selma, Alabama to demand passage of the Voting Rights Act.

Flanked by Civil Rights leaders the Revs Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson, seasoned Congressman James Clyburn and other prominent people, Biden said that "the right to vote and to have your vote count is the threshold of democracy and liberty. "

The president also called for more voting rights protections.

Former president Barack Obama gave a historic speech before thousands at the same venue in 2015 when he was president to mark the 50th anniversary of the bridge crossing, a celebratory event that also drew select dignitaries and several members of Congress, including the late John Lewis. Then a young Civil rights activists, Lewis marched across the bridge with protesters 58-years-ago for the Civil Rights march for which "Bloody Sunday" draws its name.

Selma, said Obama when he spoke at the bottom of the bridge in 2015, "was part of a broader campaign that spanned generations, and those that crossed the infamous Edmund Pettus Bridge years ago "gave courage to millions."

"Because of what they did, the doors of opportunity swung open not just for African-Americans, but for every American," said Obama, the nation's first Black president who won election in 2008 and reelection in 2012 for another four-year term.

The attack by police on marchers in Selma 58 years ago on March 7, 1965 was a prelude to two other marches within a five day period, both of them led by the late Rev Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and the last one of which thousands crossed the historic Edmund Pettus Bridge untouched. Months later, in August of 1965, Congress passed the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which is under attack today by Republican led state legislatures across the country that are adopting laws to suppress the Black vote And this is no doubt coupled with  U.S. Supreme Court decisions striking down key provisions of the Voting Rights Act.

The Supreme Court, in 2013, struck down the provision of the Voting Rights Act that required Southern states to get federal court approval to adopt or substantively amend state voting rights laws.

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, the most readBlack digital newspaper and blog in Ohio and in the Midwest Tel: (216) 659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. We interviewed former president Barack Obama one-on-one when he was campaigning for president. As to the Obama interview, CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE AT CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM, OHIO'S LEADER IN BLACK DIGITAL NEWS.