During a commemoration of the 1965 voting rights marches from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, Elliott Smith's great-aunt pushed him across the iconic Edmund Pettus Bridge in a stroller.
Elliott Smith stands near the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala., on the anniversary of"Bloody Sunday," a landmark event of the civil rights movement, Sunday, March 6, 2022.
“If our national narrative is just focused solely on voting rights and an attack on Black people, then our message is too narrow. We are missing it,” he said, previewing a message he intended to share in Selma. Marchers from other groups are expected to take their own stretches of the route throughout the week and reach the capital city for a rally on Friday.
“How have we not served the younger generation well? By not insisting that, when you look back, you need to see yourself in this movement,” he added.civil rights leaders had set for passing federal voting rights legislation following a wave of proposals in conservative-leaning states to curb access to early voting, eliminate same-day voter registration, limit mail-in vote casting and decrease the number of ballot drop boxes used in pandemic-era elections, among other effects.
On March 7, 1965, before King could arrive in Selma, state troopers and members of the Dallas County sheriff’s posse stopped demonstrators at the foot of the Pettus bridge. A trooper bashed the head of John Lewis, the late congressman who was then a student activist, during the fracas that left dozens injured.