“Today, we remember March 7, 1965—the day that will always be known as Bloody Sunday. The day that hundreds of courageous men and women set out on a peaceful demonstration, marching for their fundamental right of citizenship—the right to vote. The day that they were stopped on the Edmund Pettus Bridge, beaten savagely, knocked unconscious, and chased through the streets by state troopers for daring to raise their voices.

 

“It was a day of horror and pain. But it was also a day of resilience and grace. Because men like John Lewis would not be beaten down. Women like Amelia Boynton Robinson would not be silenced.  And so many others whose names we may never know would not be intimidated. Their mission was a holy and righteous one—a mission for dignity, justice, and equality. Bigotry and hatred may have blocked the Selma march that day, but the long march to progress cannot be blocked on any given day.  

 

“But we know too well that our work is not done.  Since 2010, the U.S. Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act, and 21 states have enacted new voting restrictions—from slashing early voting to instituting burdensome voter ID laws. Alabama—the very state where the Selma marchers demonstrated—passed a voter ID law and then closed dozens of driver’s license bureaus where citizens secure photo IDs, including in seven counties where more than two-thirds of the population is African American. 

 

“We should be making it easier for all citizens to vote, not harder. We should be working to lift each other up, not stop others from exercising their rights. And although we will fight, we should not have to fight to break down the many barriers holding Americans back—economic barriers and educational barriers, barriers of environmental injustice, barriers of discrimination in all its forms. We should not have to remind people that Black Lives Matter.  We should be striving to demonstrate that foundational principle of our country—e pluribus unum. Out of many, we are one. And it will only be when every person has a chance to live up to his or her God-given potential that America will live up to its full potential.”