On March 7, 1965, civil rights protesters in the hundreds led by the late John Lewis attempted to march between Selma and Montgomery Alabama to highlight the suppression of Black votes. When they made it as far as the Edmund Pettus bridge in Selma, they were brutally attacked by state and local police.
At the time and in many states, Black voters were prevented from voting by various means including literacy tests, poll taxes, and more. In 1965, the protesters tried to push back against these racist practices by marching to highlight their plight.
From the LWV.org 3/4/22 blog post:
“VIOLA JACKSON – One could consider Viola Jackson to be among the first victims of Bloody Sunday, as her assault and the murder of her son [in February of 1965] spawned the action in March of 1965. It is difficult to determine whether Jackson marched on Bloody Sunday, as the identities of most marchers are unknown. If she did, she would have been one of many women risking their lives for the freedom to vote.
“DEBRA BARNES WILSON and JULIS BARNES – Women of all ages and walks of life participated – like eight-year-old Debra Barnes Wilson and her grandmother, Julia Barnes. Due to Barnes’ asthma, the duo were forced to turn back before the violence began; once it did, they provided refuge within their housing project for those looking to escape assault by law enforcement.
“AMELIA BOYNTON ROBINSON – Some of the most famous images [of the march] are those of Amelia Boynton Robinson, a member of the Dallas County Voters League known for having a sign in her office that said “A Voteless People is a Hopeless People.” On March 7, she was among the protestors attacked on the Edmund Pettus bridge. Pictures of her assault circulated across the US. In the aftermath of the eventful day, she participated in a successful march from Selma to Montgomery under armored guard. In 2015, she joined Rep. John Lewis and President Barack Obama in marching across the bridge once more to commemorate Bloody Sunday’s 50th anniversary.
“MARIE FOSTER – Robinson was on the front lines of the march alongside Marie Foster, another organizer and member of the Dallas County Voters League. Prior to the march, Foster became one of the few Black members of her community who was registered to vote; it took her eight tries to successfully register. She used her experience to teach classes on how her fellow Black Alabamans could pass the “tests” used to prevent Black Americans from registering. Like Robinson, she was physically assaulted on the Edmund Pettus bridge and went on to march under protection from Selma to Montgomery.
“RACHEL WEST NELSON and SHEYANN WEBB-CHRISTBURG – “I had never faced the troopers before,” reported Rachel West Nelson, who was nine at the time of the marches. Nelson and her friend Sheyann Webb-Christburg, also nine at the time, famously recounted their experiences on Bloody Sunday in the book “Selma, Lord, Selma.” They were right to be wary. Remembering Bloody Sunday, Webb-Christburg says, “It was like I was looking at a sea of blue. Hundreds of state troopers with billy clubs, policemen with tear gas masks, the dogs and horses. My heart had begun to beat faster because I knew that something was about to happen.” As the attack commenced, she was carried to safety by none other than the late civil rights leader Hosea Williams.”
These are but a few snapshots of the many women who risked everything to end racist voter suppression. Their work helped pass the Voting Rights Act of 1965 which banned the use of literacy tests and other racist practices designed to keep Black citizens from voting.
Today, women across the country, particularly Black women, are fighting to preserve the rights of all voters. Their work is especially needed after the Supreme Court 2013 decision on Shelby County v Holder gutted much of the 1965 Voting Rights Act protections.
Voter suppression is alive and well in the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act now under consideration in Congress. If passed, this act will block millions of citizens from voting by requiring documents such as a passport or birth certificate to register to vote. Those likely to struggle most with this requirement are married people who changed their name, rural voters who do not have a passport, older voters who lost their birth certificates, disaster survivors whose documents were destroyed, military & tribal voters who cannot use military or tribal ID, trans voters whose information does not match documents.
We can all join this fight. We can follow the path laid out by these women and so many others and join voting right organizations (Rock the Vote, League of Women Voters, Voto Latino, Black Votes Matter, and others) to ensure eligible citizens no matter their race, creed, religion, have the right, the ability, and the desire to vote in every election.
The Women of Bloody Sunday risked everything to ensure they could vote. Will you follow their example and become an activist in the fight for voting rights?
This article is co-published by the Ellensburg Daily Record Newspaper on March 8, 2025. Charli Sorenson is the past President of the Kittitas County League of Women Voters. She has served on the LWVKC Board in various capacities since 2017. She has also served on the Ellensburg Affordable Housing Commission, Kittitas County Developmental Disabilities Advisory Committee, and Kittitas County Elections Disability Advisory Committee. She lives in Kittitas County with her long-suffering husband of 47 years.