Memories of 1965 Replay in Selma & Montgomery Today
For those that were there in 1965, its hard to believe they are back in the same place demanding the same things in 2026. Thousands of people rallied today in Selma, in the place where marchers braved billy clubs, deputies on horses and the Klan to win the right to vote with the 1965 Voting Rights Act. The protest then moved to the State Capital.
Today the movement has mobilized to support a new voting rights era as conservative states like Alabama, with the help of a conservative majority on the U.S. Supreme Court, move to dismantle congressional districts that helped secure Black political representation.
"We are not going down without a fight. We are not going down to Jim Crow maps," Shalela Dowdy vowed. She is a plaintiff in the Alabama redistricting case that Republican lawmakers will be rejected this coming week setting the way for doing away with at least one majority-minority district in Alabama.
The day started this morning with prayer and rememberance at Selma's Edmund Pettus Bridge where voting rights marchers were beaten by Alabama State Troopers, Dallas County Sheriff's Deputies and deputized Klan members.
The scene then moved 50 miles east as demostrators followed U.S Highway 80, the same path taken on the Selma to Montgomery march in 1965.
The stage, set in front of the Capitol, was where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke in 1965 at the end of the Voting Rights March.
Democratic Rep. Shomari Figures, who won election in District 2 in 2024 and stands to lose it if redistricting is given final approval by the U.S. Court for Northern Alabama this coming week, said the dispute is not about him but rather people's opportunity to have representation.
"When Republicans are literally turning back the clock on what representation, what the faces of representation, look like, what the opportunities, legitimate opportunities for representation look like across this country, then I think it starts to resonate with people in a little bit of a different way," Figures said.
Republicans claim redistricting is not about race but political power as the party works to retain control of congress.
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