WASHINGTON (AP) 鈥 Vice President Kamala Harris will travel to Selma, Alabama, on Sunday to commemorate the 59th anniversary of a landmark civil rights moment.
Harris will speak as part of the annual remembrance of 鈥淏loody Sunday,鈥 on the bridge where, on March 7, 1965, white state troopers attacked Black voting rights marchers attempting to cross.
The images of violence at the Edmund Pettus Bridge 鈥 originally named for a Confederate general 鈥 shocked the nation and helped galvanize support for passage of the Voting Rights Act, which struck down impediments to voting by African-Americans and ended all-white rule in the American South.
White House press secretary announced Harris' upcoming visit during a briefing with reporters on Tuesday. Harris , and President visited last year. Both used their past speeches to stress the importance of voting rights and decry what they called Republican-led efforts to undermine them.
The annual commemoration has become a regular stop for politicians to pay homage to the fight for voting rights in America and to in election years.
During the 2020 election, Biden at Selma's historic Brown Chapel AME Church hours after strong support from Black voters in South Carolina lifted Biden to his first primary victory. He also visited the city
President Barack Obama in 2015 spoke in Selma of the 1965 marches.
