Voting rights worries cloud Selma anniversary

Commemoration of 1965’s ‘Bloody Sunday’ comes as high court considers limits to landmark legislation.

- By Kim CHANDLER

Sixty-one years after state troopers attacked civil rights marchers on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, thousands gathered in the Alabama city over the weekend amid new concerns about the future of the Voting Rights Act.

The March 7, 1965, violence that became known as “Bloody Sunday” shocked the nation and helped spur passage of the landmark legislation that dismantled barriers to voting for Black Americans in the Jim Crow South.

The anniversary was celebrated in this Southern city, with events through the weekend and ending with a commemorative march across the bridge Sunday. But the festivities came as the U.S. Supreme Court considers a case that could limit a provision of the Voting Rights Act that has helped ensure some congressional and local districts are drawn so minority voters have a chance to elect their candidate of choice.