61 Years After Bloody Sunday, We Are Entering a New Era of Voter Suppression
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61 Years After Bloody Sunday, We Are Entering a New Era of Voter Suppression
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Society
/ March 9, 2026
61 Years After Bloody Sunday, We Are Entering a New Era of Voter Suppression
Two efforts underway threaten to erode the promise secured by the foot soldiers of Selma in 1965.
Janai Nelson
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Thousands are backed up and waiting to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Bridge Crossing Jubilee and “Bloody Sunday” in Selma, Alabama, in 1965.
(Michael S. Williamson / The Washington Post via Getty Images)
As the writer Zora Neale Hurston eloquently observed, “There are years that ask questions, and there are years that answer.”
Nineteen sixty-five was one of those years that answered. And 2026 is shaping up to be its heir.
In 1965, a group of ordinary citizens stood on the doorstep of history. On one side, the brutal reality they had lived since the final days of Reconstruction, one of white hoods and open caskets, strange fruit and sundown towns. On the other was the promise of true equality, which had eluded them for so long.
They didn’t know it then, but their fearless actions on a bridge in Selma would set in motion a series of events that would dramatically alter the course of history, dividing the struggle for civil rights into two eras: before Selma and after. The Voting Rights Act, signed into law five months later, codified what the Constitution had promised Black Americans for nearly a century.
As we mark 61 years since that fateful march, we find ourselves at another inflection point—standing on another doorstep. But behind this door is not progress; it’s regression.
Two consequential voting rights developments greet us this year: a seemingly innocuous change to Postal Service procedure that actually has massive ramifications for mail-in voting, and an imminent congressional vote on the so-called “SAVE America Act,” which passed the House last month and now heads to the Senate. Together, they threaten to erode the promise secured by the foot soldiers of Selma.
Despite its misleading name, the SAVE America Act is not about saving our elections. It’s about sabotaging them. The measure would require American citizens to show documents like a passport or birth certificate to register to vote. The problem: Nearly half of Americans don’t have a passport, and 69 million women could not use their birth certificate to prove their citizenship status because it doesn’t match their current legal name.
What the SAVE America Act conveniently overlooks is that we already have a strong voter verification system in place. Every state in this country verifies the identity of voters. Every single one. When you …
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61 Years After Bloody Sunday, We Are Entering a New Era of Voter Suppression
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Current Issue
Society
/ March 9, 2026
61 Years After Bloody Sunday, We Are Entering a New Era of Voter Suppression
Two efforts underway threaten to erode the promise secured by the foot soldiers of Selma in 1965.
Janai Nelson
Share
Copy Link
X (Twitter)
Bluesky Pocket
Ad Policy
Thousands are backed up and waiting to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Bridge Crossing Jubilee and “Bloody Sunday” in Selma, Alabama, in 1965.
(Michael S. Williamson / The Washington Post via Getty Images)
As the writer Zora Neale Hurston eloquently observed, “There are years that ask questions, and there are years that answer.”
Nineteen sixty-five was one of those years that answered. And 2026 is shaping up to be its heir.
In 1965, a group of ordinary citizens stood on the doorstep of history. On one side, the brutal reality they had lived since the final days of Reconstruction, one of white hoods and open caskets, strange fruit and sundown towns. On the other was the promise of true equality, which had eluded them for so long.
They didn’t know it then, but their fearless actions on a bridge in Selma would set in motion a series of events that would dramatically alter the course of history, dividing the struggle for civil rights into two eras: before Selma and after. The Voting Rights Act, signed into law five months later, codified what the Constitution had promised Black Americans for nearly a century.
As we mark 61 years since that fateful march, we find ourselves at another inflection point—standing on another doorstep. But behind this door is not progress; it’s regression.
Two consequential voting rights developments greet us this year: a seemingly innocuous change to Postal Service procedure that actually has massive ramifications for mail-in voting, and an imminent congressional vote on the so-called “SAVE America Act,” which passed the House last month and now heads to the Senate. Together, they threaten to erode the promise secured by the foot soldiers of Selma.
Despite its misleading name, the SAVE America Act is not about saving our elections. It’s about sabotaging them. The measure would require American citizens to show documents like a passport or birth certificate to register to vote. The problem: Nearly half of Americans don’t have a passport, and 69 million women could not use their birth certificate to prove their citizenship status because it doesn’t match their current legal name.
What the SAVE America Act conveniently overlooks is that we already have a strong voter verification system in place. Every state in this country verifies the identity of voters. Every single one. When you …
61 Years After Bloody Sunday, We Are Entering a New Era of Voter Suppression
Trust is earned, not demanded.
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61 Years After Bloody Sunday, We Are Entering a New Era of Voter Suppression
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Current Issue
Society
/ March 9, 2026
61 Years After Bloody Sunday, We Are Entering a New Era of Voter Suppression
Two efforts underway threaten to erode the promise secured by the foot soldiers of Selma in 1965.
Janai Nelson
Share
Copy Link
Facebook
X (Twitter)
Bluesky Pocket
Email
Ad Policy
Thousands are backed up and waiting to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Bridge Crossing Jubilee and “Bloody Sunday” in Selma, Alabama, in 1965.
(Michael S. Williamson / The Washington Post via Getty Images)
As the writer Zora Neale Hurston eloquently observed, “There are years that ask questions, and there are years that answer.”
Nineteen sixty-five was one of those years that answered. And 2026 is shaping up to be its heir.
In 1965, a group of ordinary citizens stood on the doorstep of history. On one side, the brutal reality they had lived since the final days of Reconstruction, one of white hoods and open caskets, strange fruit and sundown towns. On the other was the promise of true equality, which had eluded them for so long.
They didn’t know it then, but their fearless actions on a bridge in Selma would set in motion a series of events that would dramatically alter the course of history, dividing the struggle for civil rights into two eras: before Selma and after. The Voting Rights Act, signed into law five months later, codified what the Constitution had promised Black Americans for nearly a century.
As we mark 61 years since that fateful march, we find ourselves at another inflection point—standing on another doorstep. But behind this door is not progress; it’s regression.
Two consequential voting rights developments greet us this year: a seemingly innocuous change to Postal Service procedure that actually has massive ramifications for mail-in voting, and an imminent congressional vote on the so-called “SAVE America Act,” which passed the House last month and now heads to the Senate. Together, they threaten to erode the promise secured by the foot soldiers of Selma.
Despite its misleading name, the SAVE America Act is not about saving our elections. It’s about sabotaging them. The measure would require American citizens to show documents like a passport or birth certificate to register to vote. The problem: Nearly half of Americans don’t have a passport, and 69 million women could not use their birth certificate to prove their citizenship status because it doesn’t match their current legal name.
What the SAVE America Act conveniently overlooks is that we already have a strong voter verification system in place. Every state in this country verifies the identity of voters. Every single one. When you …
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