photo by: Contributed

Jessica Johnson

The 60th anniversary of Bloody Sunday was commemorated on March 7. On that day in 1965, civil rights marchers, led by then-Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee leader John Lewis and Southern Christian Leadership Conference special projects director Hosea Williams, were brutally attacked by Alabama state troopers as they attempted to cross Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama. The “John Lewis: Good Trouble” documentary includes live footage of this brutal and horrific event that helped propel the passage of the Voting Rights Act. In Lewis’ narration, he states that he thought he was going to “die on the bridge” after being hit on his head while the state troopers brutally attacked his fellow nonviolent protesters.

As I viewed photos of those who gathered in Selma to honor Bloody Sunday, I saw one of a man holding a sign with a picture of Lewis that read “Protect Our Vote.” Lewis, who passed away at the age of 80 in 2020, will always be remembered for his social justice work in mobilizing and helping Blacks in the South register to vote during the turbulent 1960s. There was still some of the old-guard civil rights generation celebrating in Selma, including the Rev. Jesse Jackson, now 83, but it was sad to see him confined to a wheelchair. Rep. Terri A. Sewell and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries were some of the younger political leaders marching, poised to take the civil rights mantle.

The Edmund Pettus Bridge is a stark reminder of the fierce racial hatred that civil rights protesters endured. After Bloody Sunday, it would take a third attempt led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., with the backing of a federal order, for the marchers to successfully make it to Montgomery, Alabama, on a five-day, 54-mile trek. King enthusiastically proclaimed that once everyone reached the capitol steps, they would sing “We have overcome,” slightly changing the chorus of the movement’s theme song.

Unfortunately, 60 years later, we have not completely overcome. The country’s “vibe,” as young folks would say, is not particularly good. Seventy-nine percent of Blacks polled in a 2023 USA Today/Suffolk University survey of 1,000 Americans believe that “racism is either the biggest problem or a problem in the United States” compared to 39% of Whites and 46% of Hispanics who concur with this viewpoint. The results of this survey coincide with the research of David C. Wilson, dean of the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley, and Darren W. Davis, Snyder Family Mission Professor at the University of Notre Dame. Wilson and Davis coauthored the book “Racial Resentment in the Political Mind,” in which they examine current racial hostility, asserting that while most Whites believe that racism is wrong, many take offense to what they think is unfair treatment when race is used as a criterion for inclusion and fairness. Thus, while many Whites today would decry the de jure segregation, overt discrimination and racial bigotry of the Jim Crow era, many push back on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives because they view them as providing a biased advantage in favor of African Americans and other people of color. What I see happening now is a reversion to a dangerous “us versus them” divide, the racial rift the civil rights movement fought to mend.

Reflecting on Bloody Sunday this month, many have asked where we go from here. I believe Lewis, King and other ’60s civil rights leaders would urge us to return to the Godly principle of love they espoused. In his remarks on the Montgomery capitol steps, King said that “the end we seek is a society at peace with itself, a society that can live with its conscience. And that will be a day not of the White man, not of the Black man. That will be the day of man as man.” King was reiterating a message from his “I Have a Dream” speech, where he spoke on “(sitting) down together at the table of brotherhood.” Sadly, today we are bitterly quarrelling about who gets to sit at the table instead of diligently working together to ensure everyone has a seat. When I think of the “brotherhood” King mentioned, I refer to what Christ explained as the second greatest commandment in Scripture: to love our neighbors as ourselves. When I look at my neighbor, I am not viewing him or her through the socially constructed lens of race. Instead, I am called by God to serve others with a humble and loving spirit. It will take this type of humility and compassion to move our country forward beyond the persistent stronghold of racism lingering from our past.

• Jessica A. Johnson is a syndicated columnist with Creators.