Sixty years after Selma, we are facing a backlash of anti-human rights

This month marks the 60th anniversary of the historic march from Selma to Montgomery, thwarting the struggle to pass the Voting Rights Act.

It was the pinnacle of the civil rights movement – fueled primarily by the unimaginable courage of young people, from the lunch countersit inn in Greensboro to the children’s crusades of Birmingham to freedom until the summer of Mississippi Freedom to Selma.

I was inspired by the moral leader of Pastor Martin Luther King Jr. and the courage of the Student Nonviolent Coordination Committee when I volunteered when I received a telegram from Dr. King in the university’s Student Government office, my two best friends, and my students’ nonviolent coordination committee when I got a bus to Selma.

The student government expertise (remember the technology?) of the messy mimimograph machine was assigned to the office of Brown Chapel to assist the King’s Young Rev. Andrew Young in the 54-mile march planned to stand up to the GOV of the time. George Wallace of Montgomery’s Capitol.

The state’s response to the march and the shocking murder of five Detroit mother Viola Liuzzo, the mother of five who came to Selma for volunteers, and other murderous violence by KLAN helped ensure the passage of the Voting Rights Act.

Selma’s inspiration lasted 60 years ago, and led me to a 45-year career as Director of affiliate marketing for the American Civil Liberties Union, two states fighting for civil liberties and especially for voting rights.

Sixty years later, we are now witnessing the pinnacle of anti-human rights repulsions heard by President Donald Trump’s absurd claims.

This attitude ruts the cartoonish characterization of the requirements for equal accommodation under the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the positive behavior as an obligation to hire less qualified minorities than more unqualified white candidates. The personification of this movement is like Archie Bunker, the Hotcom character in the family.

Current hostility towards human rights aims at reproductive freedom, essential to women’s equality. Unfortunately, we haven’t seen the pinnacle yet. The same story about the devil of immigrants.

And there are disgusting attacks on trans young people, supported by the belief that no non-binary people are present, and the belief that no gender discomfort exists. They are political ideologies that they should argue and shun, and therefore justify discrimination against trans people.

Perhaps he won’t see the glow of the champion Amy Schneider display if Desantis is watching the danger. He sees activists moving forward with political ideology. This is a reminder of how decades ago I insisted on calling gay men and lesbians sexual “likes.”

And what should we do about our obsession with backlash drugs? Remember that Desantis has refused to allocate budgets for all his art programming (symphonies, theaters, museums, etc.) because he has heard of two drug performances in Orlando.

Apparently, the governor never appreciated Mozart’s Figaro’s marriage, laughing at the heat like some of Billy Wilder’s, and was moved by the love story of La Cage Axe Forens by FL Jerry Herman.

Ultimately, people will catch up with many of the disadvantages that will strengthen the backlash:

awa: “End voter fraud and restore election integrity.” This is the cover of “We can take the power by making it difficult for “wrong” people to vote.”

“Restoring a merit-based system.” Has anyone noticed Trump’s qualifications as a cabinet appointee?

“We will become true advocates of freedom of speech,” but it’s okay to remove books from library shelves and limit university debates about black history.

“We restore our sanity to our education system,” meaning we replace the curriculum we dislike in propaganda.

It is naive to take for granted that we cannot break down our democracy. Study what happened at Viktor Orban’s Hungary. That’s what the repulsion model leaders have in mind for the US

Authoritarian right-wing populists gained power in democratic elections and subsequently strengthened their control over the judiciary, universities, the media and other dissenting centres. Elections are manipulated to give the illusion of democracy.

Democracy needs to be defended. This generation has a rendezvous crossing the Edmund Petus Bridge. Let’s inspire you not from the arrogance and historical blindness of Vice President J.D. Vance, but from the courage and humility of leaders like the late Selma hero John Lewis.

Above all, defending democracy relies on continuing to engage, not retreat to silence and obedience.

Dr. Howard L. Simon was executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union in Florida from 1997 to 2018. He is the president of the Clean Okeechobee Waters Foundation.