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U.S. attorney for Western Washintgon visits Selma, reflects on ‘Bloody Sunday’

By Lauren Girgis, The Seattle Times
Published: March 7, 2023, 7:38am

SELMA, Ala. — The U.S. attorney for the Western District of Washington joined a delegation of federal attorneys who marched over Selma, Alabama’s Edmund Pettus Bridge on Sunday.

The delegation was commemorating the 58th anniversary of “Bloody Sunday,” the 1965 march when civil rights activists including the late John Lewis, who later became a U.S. representative, were beaten by law enforcement. The group planned to march from Selma to Montgomery after an Alabama state trooper shot and killed activist Jimmie Lee Jackson.

The beatings on the Edmund Pettus Bridge, named after a Ku Klux Klan member, were photographed and broadcast, spurring national marches and demonstrations that eventually prodded the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Nicholas W. Brown, the first Black man to lead the district, was joined by more than 30 other U.S. attorneys on Sunday.

“It’s so important for all of us in the public sector to be cognizant and relevant of the history of this country and to recognize how it impacts what we’re doing now,” Brown said.

The trip was Brown’s first visit to Selma. He said it informed his office’s focus on prosecuting hate crimes and protecting marginalized groups who are neglected by government.

“People that are new or immigrants in our area are particularly vulnerable to being exploited or mistreated or just not recognizing how to fairly operate in our systems,” Brown said.

The delegation also met with representatives from the Department of Justice to discuss civil rights programs Sunday.

Meanwhile, U.S. President Joe Biden used the event’s anniversary to push for enhanced voting protections through law.

“This fundamental right remains under assault. The conservative Supreme Court has gutted the Voting Rights Act over the years. Since the 2020 election, a wave of states and dozens and dozens of anti-voting laws fueled by the ‘Big Lie’ and the election deniers now elected to office,” Biden said.

Brown’s group moved on to Montgomery on Monday to meet with jurist Myron Thompson, the first Black assistant attorney general for Alabama, and visit the Montgomery federal courthouse where many key civil rights cases were decided.

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