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Keep the Vote Alive March | Atlanta, GA | August 6, 2005

``Our democracy depends on protecting the right of every American citizen to vote in every election,'' - US Rep John Lewis

BLOODY SUNDAY
Approximately 600 marchers started out on a march on Sunday morning, March 7, 1965. When the marchers crossed the Edmund Pettus bridge on the outskirts of Selma, Alabama, they were met by about 200 state troopers, and Sheriff Clark and his deputies mounted on horseback, all armed with tear gas, night sticks and bull whips. The marchers were ordered to turn back. When they did not, they were attacked by the law enforcement officers. The air filled with tear gas and marchers were beaten, whipped and trampled by the horses. Finally, they turned around and returned to Selma. 17 marchers were hospitalized.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and his supporters filed a federal lawsuit requesting to be permitted to proceed with the march. On March 21, the march began again, with federal troops protecting the marchers, and proceeded to Montgomery. In Montgomery, a rally was held on the steps of the state capitol. However, within hours of the end of the march, 4 Ku Klux Klan members shot and killed Viola Liuzzo, a white 39-year-old civil rights volunteer from Detroit, Michigan, who had come to support the Alabama African-Americans. President Lyndon Johnson said, "Mrs. Liuzzo went to Alabama to serve the struggle for justice. She was murdered by the enemies of justice who for decades have used the rope and the gun and the tar and the feather to terrorize their neighbors." This single event is considered to be one of the most important events in our country's history and the civil rights movement.

August, 1965, Congress passed the Voting Rights Act

EVERY AMERICAN'S RIGHT TO VOTE IS NOW IN GREAT JEPARDY.
Today, tens of thousands of participants honored the 40th anniversary of the Right to Vote Act of 1965 and hope the ``Keep the Vote Alive'' march will pressure Congress and President Bush to extend key provisions of the landmark law, which expires in 2007.

Regardless of what side of the politcal spectrum you fall on, if you are an american citizen, please take a few minutes today to think about your right to vote and the peril it will put our country in if it was taken away.

Thanks.