Awarding Congressional Gold Medal to the Foot Soldiers Who Participated in Bloody Sunday, Turnaround Tuesday, Or the Final Selma to Montgomery Voting Rights March in March of 1965
Floor Speech
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Ms. SEWELL of Alabama. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R.
431 and yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman from Michigan for joining
me on the floor today to support H.R. 431. I have enjoyed our
bipartisan working relationship on the House Financial Services
Committee, and I am pleased today to share this debate time with him.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 431, a bill to award a
Congressional Gold Medal to the foot soldiers who participated in
Bloody Sunday, Turnaround Tuesday, or the final Selma to Montgomery
voting rights march in 1965.
March 7, 2015, will mark 50 years since the courageous foot soldiers
of the voting rights movement first attempted to march from Selma to
Montgomery to protest the denial of their voting rights.
Led by our colleague John Lewis of the Student Nonviolent
Coordinating Committee and Reverend Hosea Williams of the Southern
Christian Leadership Conference, these foot soldiers began the march
towards the Alabama State Capitol in Montgomery. They pledged to keep
on walking until they secured the freedoms promised to them by the U.S.
Constitution.
As they crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge, a wall of Alabama State
troopers were waiting at the foot of the bridge. News stations from
across the country televised the brutality that followed as foot
soldiers like Hosea Williams; John Lewis; Amelia Boynton Robinson;
Reverend F.D. Reese; Bob Nance of Lowndes County; Albert Turner, Sr.,
of Perry County; and so many others were attacked on Edmund Pettus
Bridge on what has become known as Bloody Sunday.
The journey of the foot soldiers we honor today was not an easy one.
They were discriminated by Whites and ostracized by Blacks who were
afraid to join them, but still, they persevered because they could no
longer bear the burdens of second-class citizenship.
The president of the Dallas County Voters League, Reverend F.D.
Reese, wasn't going to let nobody turn him around, he told me. He said
that given the conditions that existed in Selma and the South at that
time, he wanted to make sure that things were different.
He was willing to do whatever was necessary to ensure that people--no
matter their race, color, or creed--would have the right to vote.
He said:
The Lord gave us determination to keep moving forward. We
were determined to let the Lord lead us and direct us so that
all people, regardless of their color, would have access to
the political process.
He went on:
We were not at all afraid because we were determined that
whatever it took, even if it meant our lives, we were going
to move Alabama and the States and this Nation forward.
Amelia Boynton Robinson literally felt the blows of injustice as she
was beaten on the bridge by Alabama State troopers and left for dead.
Amelia's will and dignity suffered no damage, but it made her more
resolved than ever to continue the fight for equal voting rights.
Two days after Bloody Sunday, over 2,500 foot soldiers, heeding the
call from Dr. Martin Luther King, came to Selma to join the marchers.
On March 9, 1965, led by Dr. King and Reverend Ralph Abernathy and many
clergy from across this Nation, the foot soldiers once again left from
the historic Brown Chapel AME Church and walked to the Edmund Pettus
Bridge.
Dr. King stopped at the top of the bridge while a sea of State
troopers stepped aside. On bended knees, Dr. King began to pray as the
thousands of marchers joined him. As if moved by the spirit, Dr. King
turned around and walked back to the church. Tuesday was not to be the
day to complete the 54-mile journey. The second march attempt was known
as Turnaround Tuesday.
The fight for voting rights was fought both in the streets and in the
courtrooms. Attorney Fred Gray helped pave the way for the final Selma
to Montgomery march. He was a member of the legal team that represented
Hosea Williams, John Lewis, and Amelia Boynton Robinson in Williams v.
Wallace.
Because of his work and the courage of an Alabama Federal judge,
Federal Judge Frank Johnson ruled that the foot soldiers had a First
Amendment right to petition the government through peaceful protest and
ordered Federal agents to provide full protection to the foot soldiers
during the Selma to Montgomery March.
Under court order, the U.S. Army, the federalized Alabama National
Guard, and countless Federal agencies and marshals escorted more than
8,000 foot soldiers on March 21, 1965, as these brave men and women
began their historic 54-mile journey from Selma to the steps of the
Alabama State Capitol in Montgomery, Alabama.
The extraordinary bravery and sacrifices these foot soldiers
displayed in pursuit of a peaceful march from Selma to Montgomery
brought national attention to the struggle for equal voting rights and
served as a catalyst for Congress to pass the Voting Rights Act of 1965
which President Lyndon Johnson signed into law on August 6, 1965.
Mr. Speaker, as Alabama's first Black Congresswoman, I know that the
journey that I now take was only made possible because of the courage
and bravery of the foot soldiers of the voting rights movement.
As a proud native of Selma and the U.S. Representative who now
represents Selma and parts of Montgomery, I am the direct beneficiary
of their sacrifice.
During this 50th commemoration of the voting rights movement and the
50th anniversary of the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, it is
befitting that this august body would bestow upon the foot soldiers of
the voting rights movement our highest civilian honor, a Congressional
Gold Medal, for their valor and determination in relentlessly pursuing
the promise of our great Constitution, that all men and women were
indeed created equal.
I am proud to be joined by my colleague Martha Roby and the entire
Alabama congressional delegation--Representatives Aderholt, Rogers,
Brooks, Byrne, and Palmer--as original cosponsors of this Congressional
Gold Medal bill.
I want to thank the more than 300 colleagues who also signed on to
the bill and a special thanks to the leadership of both parties--
Speaker Boehner, Majority Leader McCarthy, Minority Leader Pelosi, and
Whip Hoyer--for their support in getting this legislation on the floor
today.
This would not have been possible without the help and support of
Chairman Hensarling and Ranking Member Waters of the House Committee on Financial Services.
To the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Huizenga), thank you. It is an
honor to stand with you today to pay tribute to the foot soldiers of
the voting rights movement.
I urge my colleagues to vote ``yes'' on H.R. 431, a bill that honors
the foot soldiers who participated in Bloody Sunday, Turnaround
Tuesday, and the final march from Selma to Montgomery with a
Congressional Gold Medal, which is Congress' highest civilian honor. I
hope this medal serves as a powerful reminder of the many sacrifices
that were made.
They say that the price of freedom is never free. Well, the foot
soldiers of the voting rights movement paid the ultimate price so that
this Nation could live up to the ideals of equality and justice for
all. This Nation should never forget those who marched, prayed, and
died in the pursuit of civil rights, voting rights, and social change.
I urge my colleagues to join us in voting in favor of H.R. 431.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
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Ms. SEWELL of Alabama. Mr. Speaker, first, I want to thank the
gentleman from Michigan for yielding us the time. I want to thank him
for the opportunity to allow the members of the Congressional Black
Caucus to speak out on this important bill.
Right now, I have the honor to yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from
Maryland, Steny Hoyer, the honorable minority whip.
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Ms. SEWELL of Alabama. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may
consume.
Mr. Speaker, voting is the most fundamental right that we share as
Americans. The foot soldiers who dared to march across the Edmund
Pettus Bridge in the face of extreme racial hostility did so in the
spirit of equality. We should never forget the sacrifices they made so
that this Nation could live up to the ideals of equality and justice
for all.
While we can never repay these foot soldiers for the sacrifices that
they made, we can offer a down payment by continuing to fight against
injustice wherever it exists. For as Dr. King so eloquently noted,
``Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.''
May we be moved by the valor and determination of these foot soldiers
to stomp out modern-day inequities in the name of justice. The foot
soldiers of the voting rights movement set forth a powerful precedent
for all of us to follow.
Whenever the rights of any one man have been denied, the rights of
all are in danger. The price of freedom, as has been said before, is
not free. The foot soldiers paid the ultimate price to ensure equal
voting rights for all Americans.
Mr. Speaker, I am proud that over 300 of my colleagues in Congress--
both Democrats and Republicans--have agreed to cosponsor this bill. I
am proud that my colleague from Alabama Senator Sessions and Senator
Booker will introduce this bill on the Senate side today.
I am humbled by the strong bipartisan support of this bill, and I
would like to thank Representative Martha Roby and all of the members
of the Alabama delegation for standing with me in support of this bill.
Today, I am especially proud to be from Alabama. I invite my
colleagues, Republican and Democrat, and all Americans, to come to
Selma during the first week of March to witness living history. You,
too, can witness living history.
The city of Selma and the jubilee group will be doing a host of
activities all week long. Of course, the commemorative march itself
will be on Sunday, March 8, as well as our President will be speaking
to us in Selma on March 7.
I urge all of my colleagues to vote in favor of H.R. 431. I believe
that bestowing the Congressional Gold Medal to the foot soldiers of the
voting rights movement is a strong reminder of the power of ordinary
Americans to collectively achieve extraordinary, extraordinary social
change.
I want to again thank the gentleman from Michigan for sharing with me
this wonderful 40 minutes of debate. I want you to know that it is one
of the highlights of my life to have the opportunity to bestow this
Congressional Gold Medal to the foot soldiers of the voting rights
movement.
As a proud daughter of Selma and the Representative of Selma,
Montgomery, Birmingham, and Tuscaloosa, I want you to know that those
of us who are the direct beneficiaries of the movement, Black and
White, we owe a debt of gratitude that we can never repay.
Today goes a long way in acknowledging those unsung and noted heroes
like John Lewis, but there are so many, so many, that are in our midst,
in our communities, that gave that sacrifice. Today, we honor them, the
foot soldiers of the voting rights movement.
I want to say again to all of my colleagues: I hope that you will
take seriously this bill and what its significance is to America.
I want to thank the gentleman from Michigan for sharing this time
with me, and I want to thank the leadership of both parties for putting
this bill on the floor in such a timely manner, so that we can get it
on the President's desk before the March 7 and 8 wonderful, wonderful
celebration.
Again, Mr. Speaker, I thank all of you for being here, and I urge my
colleagues to vote ``yes'' on H.R. 431, and I yield back the balance of
my time.
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