FLIP SCHULKE/CORBIS, AP PHOTO/KEVIN GLACKMEYER
WE WERE HERE
Edmund Pettus Bridge
Forty eight years ago, the Edmund Pettus Bridge was the site of a
horrific attack on some 600 civil rights demonstrators. When the
then Alabama governor George Wallace ordered state and local
police to stop the march on grounds of public safety, the group was
confronted by authorities armed with billy clubs and tear gas in what
infamously became known as “Bloody Sunday.” In March 2013, the
bridge was declared a historic landmark. The attack contributed
heavily to the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, a law that is
widely considered to be the country’s most effective piece of civil
rights legislation. In June 2013, the Supreme Court struck down
Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act, the provision that designates
which parts of the country must have changes to their voting laws
cleared by the federal government or in federal court.
HUFFINGTON
02.23.14