Kingfisher Media Regional News
Vice President Kamala Harris will be a speaker at the 57th Annual Bridge Crossing Jubilee on Sunday.
Organizers announced on Tuesday that Harris, the first woman and first African American elected Vice President, will speak at the foot of the Edmund Pettus Bridge on Sunday afternoon.
Harris served as keynote speaker as a U.S. Senator at the 2018 Martin & Coretta King Unity Breakfast at Wallace Community College Selma.
“When U.S. Senator Harris spoke at the Martin & Coretta King Unity Breakfast in 2018, I introduced her and predicted she would be our first woman President. She is our first woman Vice President,” said Hank Sanders, co-founder of the Bridge Crossing Jubilee and co-founder and Board Member of the Selma to Montgomery March Foundation.
Harris, who is the Biden administration’s lead on voting rights, will be speaking during the 57th Anniversary of Bloody Sunday and the Selma to Montgomery March, which led to the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.“These are critical times for democracy in these United States. This is a critical year because of the extensive attacks on the right to vote throughout the country. This year is more important for voting rights than any previous year since 1965,"
Vice President Harris will be joined by members of President Joe Biden’s cabinet, including Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Marcia Fudge, Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan, and Deputy Secretary of Veteran Affairs Donald Remy, according to a press release.
Following her speech, the Vice President will march across the Bridge with Foot Soldiers from 1965’s Bloody Sunday and the 1965 Selma to Montgomery March as well as national Civil Rights and Voting Rights leaders.
Tens of thousands attend the Jubilee every year with more than 100,000 attending on Bloody Sunday.
National leaders attending this year’s Jubilee and Martin & Coretta King Unity Breakfast will also be participating in the full Selma to Montgomery March to conclude with an 11 a.m. rally at the Alabama Capitol on March 11.
Other leaders attending the March are SCLC President and CEO Dr. Charles Steele on Sunday, Repairers of the Breach President and Co-Chair of the Poor People’s Campaign Bishop William Barber and Co-Chair of the Poor People’s Campaign Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis on Monday, Rainbow PUSH Coalition Founder and President Rev. Jesse Jackson on Monday, Transformative Justice Coalition Founder and President Barbara Arnwine, Esq. on Monday, National Action Network Founder and President Rev. Al Sharpton on Tuesday, Black Voters Matter Co-Founders LaTosha Brown and Cliff Albright on Wednesday, National AFL-CIO President Liz Schuler and AFSCME President Lee Saunders on Thursday and more.
Other organizations from across the country will join these groups during part or all of the 2022 Selma-to-Montgomery March. The theme of the 2022 Selma Bridge Crossing Jubilee is “Return to the Bridge! Fight for the Vote!” and the theme of the 2022 Selma to Montgomery March is “Fight for the Vote!”
Selma-based Kingfisher Media Regional News provides content for the Selma Sun, the Centreville Press, the Marion-Times Standard and the Wilcox Progressive Era.
