Huffington Magazine Issue 89 | Page 69

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