Hi folks,

Today marks the 60th anniversary of Bloody Sunday, an infamous day in our nation’s long and storied struggle for voting rights. On March 7, 1965, peaceful protesters marched across the Edmund Pettus Bridge with one simple demand: everyone, regardless of their race, should be afforded the equal right to vote.

In response, the demonstrators were met with unspeakable violence, as police used tear gas, bullwhips and batons to beat the protesters into submission. Dozens were injured, and several were killed. Among the 17 hospitalized was civil rights hero John Lewis, who sustained a fractured skull after being beaten within an inch of his life.

The marchers’ sacrifices were immense, but they were not in vain. Undeterred by police violence, these freedom fighters re-assembled days later to demand their voting rights, galvanizing a movement that forever changed the nation.

President Lyndon B. Johnson referred to the events in Selma as "a turning point in man's unending search for freedom" as the brutality of Bloody Sunday put a spotlight on the injustices suffered by African Americans in the Jim Crow South. Months later, he signed the Voting Rights Act into law, guaranteeing Americans of all backgrounds the right to make their voices heard at the ballot box, free from discriminatory barriers and restrictions.

Today, the struggle for voting rights continues. The Voting Rights Act (VRA) has been repeatedly undermined by the Supreme Court’s conservative majority. In 2013’s disastrous Shelby County v. Holder ruling, the Supreme Court took an axe to the heart of the VRA, unleashing a tidal wave of restrictive voting laws disproportionately targeting Black and minority voters. Since then, far-right judges have continued to chip away at the VRA’s protections for voters of color.

We have all seen the consequences: long lines, closed polling stations, voter roll purges, bans on early and absentee voting. The list goes on. Now more than ever, Congress must act to strengthen voting rights across the country.

That’s why, on Wednesday, I introduced the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act in the House.

The tragic reality is that while every Democrat in Congress has signed onto this legislation, not a single Republican has joined us. As we remember Bloody Sunday, the truth is that our commemoration will be incomplete so long as our right to vote remains in peril. As John Lewis so eloquently taught us, “Freedom is not a state; it is an act… and each generation must do its part.”

Thank you for standing with me in this struggle for freedom,

Congresswoman Terri Sewell