Al Sharpton PHOTO COURTESY OF FACEBOOK

Marks continuation of fight to protect civil and voting rights as DEI remains under relentless attack.

New York, NY – Rev. Al Sharpton, Founder and President of the National Action Network (NAN), marched in Selma, Alabama, with Vice President Harris and a host of civil rights leaders as they commemorate the 59th anniversary of Bloody Sunday. Their demonstration will serve as a galvanization in the fight to protect voting rights and diversity in Corporate America, which have been continuously attacked by right-wing legal activists.

Rev. Sharpton has regularly traveled to Selma to march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge, where in 1965 police brutally attacked peaceful voting rights activists led by John Lewis. The nationally televised assault served as a catalyst for President Johnson to prioritize the landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965. Yet the promise and the safeguards of that legislation have been gutted for over a decade, following the Supreme Court’s crushing Shelby v. Holder decision.

Since that 2013 dilution of the law, Rev. Sharpton has called for Congress to pass the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Act. The legislation, named for the activist-turned-Congressional legend, would create national safeguards to vote – countering many state’s efforts to make ballot access even harder.

Sunday’s march comes at a crucial time in the fight to protect civil rights. After the Supreme Court gutted affirmative action in higher education last summer, right-wing activists have targeted DEI in Corporate America and have sued organizations like the Fearless Fund over their support of women of color. NAN has called hedge fund billionaire Bill Ackman, who has become one of the faces of the fight against DEI and has picketed outside of his Manhattan office for nine straight weeks.