Sewell: Injustices suffered on Bloody Sunday in 1965 have ‘not been fully vindicated’

Above: Rep. Terri Sewell expresses her disappointment with the Supreme Court’s decision to strike down Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act

WASHINGTON – On Tuesday afternoon following the Supreme Court’s ruling in the Shelby Co. v. Holder case that struck down Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act, Rep. Terri Sewell, D-Birmingham, expressed her disappointment and called the occasion a “sad day” for Alabama. She also suggested there has yet to be sufficient vindication for the Bloody Sunday event in 1965.

“This is indeed a sad day for our nation, but it’s especially a sad day for my home state of Alabama,” Sewell said. “As a native of Selma, Ala. and as a member that currently represents the civil rights district of Alabama, I can tell you that I know that the injustice suffered on that bridge, the Edmond Pettus Bridge on Bloody Sunday in 1965 has not been fully vindicated. I think it is ironic that the very state that caused us to get us the Voting Rights Act is now being used by our Supreme Court to dismantle that very law.”

Sewell cited the Department of Justice’s action against the City of Calera in Shelby County back in 2009 that eliminated the city’s sole majority African-American district at the time as proof there is still a need for that provision of the Voting Rights Act.

“But I think that as long as there are facts like the facts in the Shelby County case, which so clearly demonstrate that there is so much work to be done — the fact of the matter is that without preclearance, Calera, the city of Calera, county of Shelby, redrew the line such that an African-American city council member would lose and the discriminatory effect was that he lost, he lost that election,” she said. “This wasn’t in 1965. This wasn’t in 1970 or 1980. This was in my lifetime. This was but a few years ago. I think it’s unacceptable.”

“And as long as there are voters whose rights need to be protected, there is a need for the Voting Rights Act,” she continued. “Now we in Congress have an opportunity, an opportunity to develop another coverage formula. But I can tell you whatever coverage formula that is developed, I can’t imagine that my state, Alabama, would not continue to fall under it. It’s disheartening for me because I know that so much progress has taken place, but the unfortunate reality is there is still so much work to be done.”

Sewell closed her remarks from the House Press Gallery by calling on her colleagues to do as Chief Justice John Roberts had suggested in his 5-4 majority opinion, which was have Congress revise Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act so that it is adapted to 2013.

“I look forward to joining with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to get that work done so that the effects of Section 5 will continue to be available,” Sewell said. “I would have never thought that I, a beneficiary of the civil rights movement, would be on stage today with John Lewis, Steny Hoyer, Jim Clyburn and so many of my colleagues fighting still for the protection of a fundamental right to vote. The right to vote is sacred and we who are in Congress — Republicans and Democrats, should be fighting for that right, not looking to restrict it. And the very fact that in this past election, we had 38 states, including Alabama that had voter ID laws looking to restrict people’s rights to vote. We have to stand up. We have to stand up. And I look forward to joining my colleagues and standing up for the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and for the protections of minority rights.”

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