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One of the main topics discussed during the Faith and Politics Institute on Friday.

The event was held at ArtsRevive with a press conference following at the foot of the Edmund Pettus Bridge.

U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell, D-Selma, said she introduced a voting rights bill that was supported by the late Rep. John Lewis. And she is working to get congressmen and congresswomen to sign on to the bill.

“This year’s commemoration comes in a very challenging time for our democracy,” Sewell said. “ If we are to truly honor John’s legacy, we must also act. That’s why on Wednesday, I was proud to reintroduce the John Robert Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act in the House of Representatives. Our bill would fully restore the protection to the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and ensure that every American has access to the ballot box.”

U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Florida, said he supports most of the bill, but he disagrees over a key point, pre-clearance. He said the U.S. Supreme Court struck down that part of the bill, and he does not want to see this included in a voting rights package. He cited law changes in Georgia as a good example of this.

“But after Georgia changed their voting laws, more Black Americans in the state of Georgia voted in the midterm 2022 elections and even more voted in the previous election that just passed in 2024,” Donalds said. “So the argument is over pre-clearance, not about the historical significance of the Voting Rights Act, not about the other five provisions of the Voting and Rights Act that are still enacted, that are still in law in effect today.”

U.S. Rep. Jim Cliburn, D-South Carolina, said the reason why they are introducing the bill is due to the Supreme Court striking down that part of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

“I’m the ninth African American to serve Congress from South Carolina — the ninth, which means before me there were eight,” Cliburn said wearing a South Carolina State hat in the bright sunshine. “The problem is there are 95 years between number eight and number nine. Why? Because the Supreme Court in a case called Plessy versus Ferguson changed the law. This Supreme Court has changed the law as it relates to the 1965 Voting Rights Act. That’s why we reintroduced the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act because the Supreme Court has changed it,” Cliburn said.

Virginia Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Spears also came to Selma with the legislative delegation. She said her family came to America 17 days before Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech on the Washington Mall. She said it is an honor to stand in front of the Edmund Pettus Bridge.

“I stand as second in command in the former capital of the Confederate states,” she said. “It is significant that I mention that because here I am before this wonderful bridge, this massive bridge, historically imposing bridge where the President of the Confederacy, as they were on their way to marching toward Montgomery, where he was inaugurated. We have a saying in church, started in the black church: I may not be what I’m supposed to be, but I ain’t what I used to be. And that is America and she is getting where she needs to be.”

Selma Mayor James Perkins Jr. addressed the Faith and Politics Initiative over lunch. He cited a lot of positive investments happening in Selma. There is a new middle school being built. There is $40 million in capital investments that are going into the city ranging from replacing lead pipes to other infrastructure improvements to repave and fix drainage in the city.

However, he also acknowledged that there is high anxiety in the city. Some of that is due to the tornado recovery efforts to the economy that is flailing due to high costs at the grocery stores.

“Just know that there are people who are genuinely hurting,” Perkins said. “They really are hurting. And I have come to a place and a space in my life where the only place I know to place my fear is in my faith. I know I’m not one who believes that prayer only is the answer.”