Remember Selma, Continue the Fight

By Congresswoman Brenda L. Lawrence

This year we remember the importance of the great marches on Selma, Alabama that took place fifty years ago in 1965. I’m privileged to be part of a delegation of Congressional members who will visit the historic Alabama site next month to commemorate the anniversary of the seminal events.

Being a Detroit native, of course, I witnessed the struggle for Civil Rights and the role it played in shaping our nation. As a young girl, I watched on television and witnessed first-hand the impact that heroic residents from my home town played in supporting the struggle for equal rights.

As we look back and continue to march forward, let’s also remember Viola Liuzzo. The mother of five young children, who happened to be white, Luizzo was a part-time student at Wayne State University in 1965. She felt compelled to trek to Selma in the wake of the “Bloody Sunday” attempt at marching across the Edmund Pettus Bridge. Luizzo participated in the successful Selma to Montgomery marches. Driving back from a trip shuttling fellow activists to the Montgomery airport, she was fatally shot by members of the Ku Klux Klan. Like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. at the time of his assassination, she was only 39 years old.

Fast forward fifty years. Much has occurred since the spirited marches that led to the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. In fact, that seminal act is under attack. In far too many communities across our great nation, registered voters are confronted by a variety of unfortunate measures. They include: Photo ID regulations; baseless allegations of voter fraud; and a host of voter suppression methods.

As we continue to fight to protect the Voting Rights Act of 1965, let’s remember those who fought—and in some cases died-- for the right of all Americans to vote. Let’s ensure that those who came before us have not done so in vain.