SELMA, Ala. (AP) – Democratic presidential candidates gathered Sunday in this crucible of the civil rights movement to appeal for black support in a town where demonstrators were once beaten for marching for the right to vote.
Two days before the crucial Super Tuesday vote, themes of fighting voter suppression, providing the poor with a way up and defeating President Donald Trump took center stage at events marking the 55th anniversary of “Bloody Sunday,” when white police attacked black marchers in Selma, Alabama.
Just hours after strong support by black voters in South Carolina lifted Joe Biden to his first primary victory, the former vice president was set to speak during the morning worship at historic Brown Chapel AME Church, where former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg also planned to talk. The two split the endorsements of leading black political groups in Alabama, one of 14 states voting on Tuesday.
Those two candidates plus Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Amy Klobuchar and former Mayor Pete Buttigieg were scheduled to join marchers re-enacting the walk across the steel-arched Edmund Pettus Bridge that ended in mayhem decades ago. Tom Steyer also is attending despite suspending his campaign after a poor showing in South Carolina.
Rep. Terri Sewell, the lone black member of Alabama’s congressional delegation, urged hundreds of people attending a community breakfast to vote for Biden and enable “a return to civility.”